Supporters of Brazil's Bolsonaro engage in post-election unrest https://t.co/7XtsLD9VTY pic.twitter.com/Yn6jV3TkCB
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 9, 2023
Dramatic scenes unfolded in Brazil's capital, Brasilia, where supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace https://t.co/q2QLEjxG4Y pic.twitter.com/owsi2s0aE9
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 9, 2023
A three-hour tour, on a Sunday afternoon… There will be much more information coming out, I’m sure, but here’s a post of immediate reactions, to mark the event.
Brazil’s Supreme Court late on Sunday removed the governor of Brasilia from office for 90 days due to flaws in security in the capital, after thousands of backers of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro ransacked government buildings.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes also ordered social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to block coup-mongering propaganda.
Brazilian authorities have begun investigating the worst attack on the country’s institutions since democracy was restored four decades ago, with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowing to bring those responsible for the riot to justice.
Tens of thousands of anti-democratic demonstrators on Sunday invaded the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace and smashed windows, overturned furniture, destroyed art works and stole the country’s original 1988 Constitution. Guns were also seized from a presidential security office…
Lula blamed Bolsonaro for inflaming his supporters after a campaign of baseless allegations about election fraud after the end of his rule marked by divisive nationalist populism.
From Florida, where he flew 48 hours before his term ended, Bolsonaro rejected the accusation, tweeting that peaceful demonstrations were democratic but the invasion of government buildings “crossed the line.”…
Police retook the damaged public buildings in the iconic futuristic capital after three hours and dispersed the crowd with tear gas.
Justice Minister Flavio Dino said 200 demonstrators had been arrested, but governor Rocha put the number at 400.
Dino said investigations will aim to uncover who financed the several hundred buses that brought Bolsonaro’s supporters to Brasilia and also probe Rocha for not preparing security…
Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his election defeat have stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace in the capital. By early evening, police had reestablished control of the buildings. https://t.co/hK5IDjDFpb
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 8, 2023
… The incident recalled the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. Political analysts have warned for months that a similar storming was a possibility in Brazil, given that Bolsonaro has sown doubt about the reliability of the nation’s electronic voting system — without any evidence. The results were recognized as legitimate by politicians from across the spectrum, including some Bolsonaro allies, as well as dozens of foreign governments.
Unlike the 2021 attack in the U.S., few officials were likely to have been working in the Brazilian Congress and Supreme Court on a Sunday.
U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters that the riots in Brazil were “outrageous.” His national security adviser Jake Sullivan went a step further on Twitter and said the U.S. “condemns any effort to undermine democracy in Brazil.”
Biden later tweeted that he looked forward to continuing to work with Lula, calling the riots an “assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil.”
From a long thread:
Ends by recalling reason for visit to city of Araraquara today (natural disasters). Climate change a major threat, he says, noting that many vandals in Brasilia today almost certainly linked to illegal logging, mining, and cattle ranching interests responsible for deforestation pic.twitter.com/o8GZu20tcA
— Andre Pagliarini (@apagliar) January 8, 2023
Another thread:
Gotta catch them all!
“Three more buses full of detained bolsonaristas arrive at the police station.” https://t.co/450tPS8lQe— Sanho Tree (@SanhoTree) January 8, 2023
The Biden administration has condemned the attacks by supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on the country’s government buildings congress, supreme court and presidential palace. https://t.co/ahUQIhn7tZ
— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) January 8, 2023
As fanatical fascist far-right supporters of Brazil's ex president Bolsonaro storm the congress and presidential palace in Brazil – reminder that Bannon and others like Prince, Gorka and most notably Trump have been close supporters and strategists supporting Bolsonaro https://t.co/gQPAQwFNqD
— Wendy Siegelman (@WendySiegelman) January 8, 2023
Thread:
Jason Miller, who had just founded the social media platform GETTR (expanding a project by Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui), appeared on Bannon's War Room even as the 2021 Brazilian 'riot' unfolded and talked of the mob's "enthusiasm for free speech". 4/https://t.co/u3HYEJTtxh
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) January 8, 2023
*All* the usual suspects…
13/ "It’s the start of a relationship which I’m sure will soon end in marriage" – #Bolsonaro on Musk.
It will be very interesting to see what comes next from the platform's CEO. pic.twitter.com/Pfn7y1BGa5
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) January 8, 2023
Counter-argument:
I dunno, I’ve suspected he’s there to escape arrest in Brazil. And if he was going to retake power I think it would be hard from Florida, & I also think the US—if they’re legally able—might not let him leave FL if they think it’s to go overthrow Lula https://t.co/I0UcowhcvA
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 9, 2023
Not everything fits in to a good analogy w the US. Today was not much like 1-6, even though Bannon was involved w both. Today mostly shows that Bannon is fucking stupid, & that Roger Stone & the Proud Boys/Oath Keepers were the brains of 1-6.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 9, 2023
Medium Cool – Autobiographies!
NotMax
I can understand being peeved with Amazon, but this is taking it too far.
//
Viva BrisVegas
Bolsonaro says he has a line he won’t cross.
I believe that’s called implausible deniability.
Baud
@Viva BrisVegas:
The only lines a right winger won’t cross are the ones the rest of society imposes on him.
TriassicSands
Just another normal tourist day in Brazil.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
Greetings from currently dry, but soon to be very soggy Glendale. We are predicted to get over 5″ of rain in the next 3 days.
Baud
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Any risk of mudslides or flooding where you are?
TriassicSands
Did that come out right? I was under the impression that lines imposed on right wingers by the rest of society were the most important ones to cross. Further, I wasn’t aware that there are any lines a right winger won’t cross especially if political power is at stake.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’m not all that close to the hills, the LA River is about 1/4 mile away, but it is well channeled and has really good flood control.
ETA: That said, this reminds me a lot of the rains we had 54 years ago. It washed out Ventura Harbor and caused a shit ton of damage. My mom always referred to the weatherman on KNXT that predicted nice weather as “mud” after that storm.
Baud
@TriassicSands:
I think I said it right. The only two questions they ask are:
These are determined by external factors. They only real internal checks they have are competing right wing factions.
TriassicSands
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
I really hope you’re safe.
i used to live in Boulder, CO and was shocked when I saw a detailed flood plain map. Places that we all thought were safe, turned out to be at risk when enough rain fell. After I left Boulder, they had horrendous flooding. The basement of my friend’s house flooded badly but he was sure he was not at any risk at all. Fortunately, it was only his basement, but there was still considerable damage.
mrmoshpotato
Yes, Reuters. “Unrest”
Baud
The Axios guy on MSNBC has internalized the GOP spin.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
…and the rain has begun.
TriassicSands
Yeah, unrest. Like January 6, 2021. And recent events in Iran. Gee, maybe that’s all that’s happening in Ukraine.
I guess storming government buildings has become the new normal.
I wonder. If January 6 hadn’t happened, would the events in Brazil have taken place? “Monkey see, monkey do” is pretty common for mindless fascists.
Baud
Apparently, Drudge Report still exists.
David 📢 Speaker 📢 Koch☑️
To paraphrase Carly Simon, you’re so vain, you probably think this coup is about you.
Baud
@David 📢 Speaker 📢 Koch☑️:
👍
WereBear
@TriassicSands: I was thinking the same thing. “We will do it right,” said the brainless.
Baud
@TriassicSands:
What is going on in Iran? Haven’t heard any new news in a while.
matt
Seems like a great opportunity to take out Bannon, Miller and others.
Geo Wilcox
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I remember that storm. We lived in San Dimas at the time. The year before we had huge brush fires that stripped the hills of vegetation. Then came the rains. Our roads out were flooded but our house was high enough up not to get swamped.
TriassicSands
@WereBear:
Well, it worked so well in 2021, why not give it a try?
Maybe they think their fascists are better than our fascists. It’s not like there were a lot of intellectual giants running around the Capitol on January 6., and the most dangerous stupid people are those that don’t realize just how stupid they are.
Shalimar
@Baud: It doesn’t take a lot of bandwidth to host a website designed 25 years ago. And Drudge still has big money backers. The real question is does anyone still visit Drudge Report since he turned so anti-Trump?
WereBear
@TriassicSands: This is even more true when it comes to the opposition on Jan 6: counter-protesters stayed away. Just about to read Will Bunch’s piece on how that was a pivotal decision.
That’s why they built in so many Confederate cheats, like the Dred Scott decision and the Electoral College. Without cheating, they have nothing.
TriassicSands
@Baud:
i was referring to recent events, not necessarily current ones. I haven’t heard anything recently, except that they executed two men.
And “justice for all” — gag.
TriassicSands
Which was so apparent on Friday/Saturday. The only way Republicans know how to approach/win elections is by cheating in some way. Whether it is preventing people from voting — McCarthy and general voter suppression — gerrymandering, or appealing to corrupt courts. That’s all they know.
Night, all.
Geminid
@Baud: I have not been following Iran very closely myself. The main news I’ve caught recently is that the regime is beginning to execute protestors convictedof alleged violents against security forces. I think the number of executions so far is less than 10 but two young men were slated to be executed yesterday.
Other stories are that there are divisions within the regime over how heavily to crack down on protests that are still continuing.
I’ve read of similar division over the question of selling ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine. A deal was reported around October 15 but Iran has not yet followed through. This was discussed some in last night’s Ukraine thread. Iran is still supplying attack drones, around 1500 so far.
Princess
FAFO
Ken
I read Bolsonaro is here on a diplomatic passport. If Brazil revokes that, would he be able to leave the US? Would the US arrest and hold him for being in the country illegally? Or deport him back to Brazil?
Betty
It would be nice if Brazil demanded the extradition of Bannon and locked him up. Wonder how he would enjoy their prison.
Soprano2
Back when I had time to read long articles in magazines (pre-internet) I read an interesting article about Brasilia in Harper’s. They literally went out into the middle of the jungle and built a whole capital city from scratch. I can’t remember the reason they did it, but I definitely remember the story. Harper’s used to have interesting stuff like that; there was a story about the apple orchards in Washington and how they actually grow apples (on trellises) and one about grain threshers and the route they traveled to thresh grain all over the Midwest. I kind of miss that.
Frankensteinbeck
This answers the one big mystery for me about the riots. The chucklefuck conservative rioters did think they were giving the military an excuse to launch a pro-Bolsonaro coup. It was the traditional ‘the spark that lights a flame’ strategy.
sdhays
@Frankensteinbeck: Yeah, I think Dana Houle’s argument up above is pretty silly. It amounts to “Brazil is different from the US”, which…um, yeah?
January 6 in the US and January 8 in Brazil were both right-wing fascist riots intending to be a Reichstag fire pretext to install right-wing fascists permanently in the government. The details are different, but the aims are the same.
Yesterday, people were a bit confused about why this was happening after Lula already took office. I think we Americans don’t appreciate just how little people in countries with fairly recent military dictatorships see legal processes as limitations – Bolsonaro’s supporters figure all they need is for the military to intervene and all of that election and legal nonsense won’t mean anything anymore.
Besides, Bolsonaro never handed over the sash of the Presidency, or whatever, right? He’s still President*!
(*not intended to be a factual statement)
Minstrel Michael
Brazil does have a history of banana republicanism. 200 years ago, when Napoleon was marching all over Europe, the Portuguese monarch Dom Pedro saw what was coming and decided to just pack up and move to his biggest colonial possession. His prestige was enough to keep Brazil a single entity, as opposed to the various Spanish colonies that rebelled piecemeal (several encouraged by Simon Bolivar). A couple descendants later, a military coup took out the monarchy. Eventually they wrote a constitution and established a small-r republican form of government that was never very stable; several unconstitutional transitions occurred in the 20th century, most recently yet another military takeover in 1964, and representative democracy wasn’t fully restored (according to Wikipedia) until 1989.
The seat of government was in Rio de Janeiro until 1959, when they built Brasilia in the middle of nowhere to try and isolate it from factionalism. (As Rocket J. Squirrel said, “But that trick never works!”) Like our District of Columbia, the Distrito Federal is its own state; unlike ours, it has representatives in the legislature. The architect Oscar Niemeyer designed not only the major government buildings but also the street plan of the city center: there’s a major north-south boulevard, and two other boulevards that feed into it at the same angle as the wings of a jet airliner, not only as a symbol of modernity but also as an admission that air travel was by far the most practical way to get there! On the weekends, pretty much anyone who can afford to leave town does.
My second wife was a huge fan of Brazilian culture, so we took a lot of vacations there. One event I’m thinking of now was a street fair sponsored by the state government of Bahia to celebrate a park in a poor district that they had renovated. We were there because they had promised that the Bahian band Olodum (who made a record with Michael Jackson) would play; it turned out to be a bait and switch, the actual performers were actually called Olorum and weren’t worth it. The politicos made speeches about how benevolent they were to give the neighborhood a refurbished park, and then warned the residents that it was up to them to keep it clean– and this was because city government was in the hands of an opposition party, and the state wasn’t about to fund the city enough to provide basic services; people there told us that their usual method of trash disposal was to take trash bags down to the beach and let the tide carry it down to where the big photogenic cathedral was, where somebody else would pick it up. (Any analogy between this and relations in USA between cities and red states in USA is left as an exercise to the reader.)
My real point in telling this story is to note that there was a major police presence at this event: a couple dozen guys in military fatigues, carrying uzis. I was told that they were employed by the federal government. I don’t know whether all police in Brazil are federalized, or just the riot control squads, but I think it has some impact on how Brazil’s recent events played out.
StringOnAStick
@TriassicSands: In the 1990’s Boulder started requiring that rentals in the flood plain (lots of apartments) had a permanent notice affixed to the front door stated that this housing is in the flood plain and in the event of heavy rain, vacate the premises immediately. A cloudburst up in the canyon will be catastrophic, and the rain event in that one and several others in 2013(if I remember the year correctly) caused a huge amount of flooding in Boulder, wiped out the main road into Estes Park, several other roads that lots of mountain residents needed to get to work and school, etc. Some parts of the canyons affected had what were considered 100 year, 500 year and even 1,000 year flood levels; as storm intensity increases with AGW, those canyon homes plus a big chunk of the city of Boulder out on the plains are going to see worse, just like every other canyon-to-plains city in the Colorado Front Range.