Good news, everyone! The left has won in Brazil, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beating world-class fascist and friend of Elon Musk Jair Bolsonaro for the presidency. Now we just need to do likewise in a week and a half.
Now we just have to hope that Brazil doesn’t erupt in the kind of chaos and violence our Republicans want. May you have a peaceful and orderly transition, Brazilians!
Someone needs to keep an eye on the CIA because there’s no way they’re going to let this stand.
The long dictatorship that startad 1968 was triggered by a certain Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat.
.
Note that he won by the smallest of margins, less than 1%.
The institutions in Brazil just barely were strong enough.
A chief of police even blocked traffic to prevent Lula supporters from voting in a state that is a Lula stronghold.
Lula is 77, not much less than Bernie! And yet he is going strong.
Now for the practice run in getting Bolsonaro to leave. Since he’s given some indication that he does not intend to go quietly.
Good job, Brazil, not electing the nutjob with the death spiral policies.
Good luck in getting him to leave.
I hope that he goes quietly. Or if he doesn’t, that you have minimal trouble in removing him.
birgerjohansson@2,
Actually Lula won by 1.8%. Still alarmingly narrow – nearly half of those Brazilians who voted, voted for fascism.
Yeah…no! Brazil is an independent (and politically and environmentally crucial) country, its elections are not “practice runs” for those in the USA. How easily even progressive Americans can slip into the OWHITUSAC* mindset. Indeed, important as the US midterms are, in global terms I’d say the Brazilian presidential runoff was probably more so.
*Only What Happens In The USA Counts
That’s true and relevant, KG, but it should also be noted that percentage refers to (60,345,999 – 58,206,354) 2,139,645 more people. Quite a few, really.
Daylight Savings Time ends on Sunday, November 6. If you plan to vote in person on Tuesday, November 8, get your clocks in order quickly.
Amy chance media in USA will debate how the violent, hammer-wielding lunatic fringe consistently is at the right?
(…crickets)
birgerjohansson, so you think it’s debatable.
Good on Brazil.
I’m getting mixed feelings… It’s certainly good that Balsanaro lost, but Lula seems to be backing the Russian side of their invasion of Ukraine, which is complete nonsense.
whheydt, think of the Amazon. That should help.
@#2, birgerjohansson:
And the President who greenlit the CIA’s participation in Operation Car Wash, the bogus legal maneuverings which ousted Lula the first time, was Barack Obama. Funny how that works — it’s almost as though both parties in the US have the same foreign policy. But if that were true, why, you’d expect insane things like the Democrats not prosecuting anybody for the Iraq war, or the Democrats repeatedly putting up Presidential nominees who voted in Congress in favor of the invasion despite having access in advance to the intelligence reports which proved Bush was lying. And that would be totally unbelievable.
@#11, whheydt:
Bolsonaro has no reason to love NATO after what the US and Europe (and even Canada) have done to him and his country. And as for Russia: the belief that the west provoked Russia into starting that war (which is, incidentally, exactly what NATO itself predicted back in the 1990s as a result of eastward expansion of membership) is not incompatible with the belief that the Ukrainians are in the right to defend themselves.
Vicarish:
What an absolutely idiotic thing to say!
Fact is, Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russia fucking obviously started the damn war. It’s all on record.
Started taking slices off Ukraine back in 2014, tried for the entire lot in 2022.
Indisputably, Russia is the one and only aggressor in this war.
So… the “belief that the west provoked Russia into starting that war” is a stupid belief.
@#14, John Morales:
The belief that the west provoked Russia into starting that war was preemptively espoused by most of NATO’s upper officials in the 90s. They explicitly told Bill Clinton that expanding NATO eastward (with Poland, which Clinton wanted in order to shore up the Polish vote) would eventually lead to Russia taking military action against the countries along its borders, and might actually provoke a nuclear war. So I guess you think NATO is stupid. And, of course, Clinton later admitted that they were right, so you agree with me that Bill Clinton is an idiot. Glad to know we’re on the same page.
…I just realized after typing that out, oh, yes, this is John Morales, he’s always a jerk and a fool.
Vicar (singular):
A very, very stupid claim, that is.
Also, you adduce no evidence that it’s not a product of your imagination.
Most saliently, a belief is not a fact.
Here are some facts:
The war started when Russia forswore its solemn commitment to the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. After due propaganda, infiltration of Ukraine’s governing apparatus and media, bribery and blackmail and so forth, it began to annex territory, Crimea being the most salient example.
At that time, Ukraine was not in a fit state to militarily contest the situation, and everyone thought its military was formidable. So Russia got away with it.
Until Russia over-reached.
Even were I to take you at your word (your credibility is long gone) and even if that were the only advice that Bill received, that constitutes a prediction, not a provocation.
A notably stupid guess.
Do you have any idea of the hoops and changes and commitments countries have to make to apply to join NATO?
Do you not know that any single member of NATO can veto any prospective member?
See, you’re buying into this stupid conceit that NATO seeks any old country that applies, whereas the reality is quite different.
Only possible if one has no idea of what NATO is, like you.
<snicker>
Yeah, I know. It’s fucking Hillary Clinton’s fault. Or her husband’s.
Or Biden’s. Or the Democrats.
Heh.
[meta]
Ah well, the Vicar thing slinks away again. No surprise there.
Bit slow on the uptake, but has a sense of self-preservation.
I’m very happy Bolsonaro did not get re-elected after his catastrophic handling of Covid, not to mention all of the other terrible things he has done. But Lula could be hamstrung by the legislature, a problem we recognize from the US. Congratulations Lula and “boa sorte” good luck. You will need it.
I can understand why the Russians dislike having NATO on their borders. They have a long history of borders that are hard to impossible to defend. At the same time, I can understand why their neighboring countries–not just Poland–really want the protection that NATO afford them, They have long histories of being threatened and taken over by Russia.
Putin signed agreements to respect Ukraine’s borders. He has violated those agreements and those borders. Note that this has pushed both Sweden and Finland–which also has a long, unpleasant history with Russia–into applying to join NATO.
While one can point to past concerns over what Russia might do as neighboring countries have become independent and more western aligned, where the rubber meets the road, Putin actually did attack Ukraine in an attempt to eliminate it as an independent state. Regardless of any feeling that Russia has been backed into a corner, they are the agressor.
Side note… Last night I was reading about the history of Russian tanks. The description of their logistics failures during WW2 read exactly like their current logistics failures. In that regard, nothing has changed in the Russian army in the last 80 years.