In an online interview for the #ElPaís, the ex-president of #Brazil, #Lula, disturbly admitted what his administration did to the Brazilian people:
“I'M ALREADY OF AGE, I ALREADY LIVED A LOT, I ALREADY HAVE TOO MUCH EXPERIENCE; I WILL NOT FOOL THE PEOPLE AGAIN.”
Brazilians and the world thank his admission. It was about time.
The Electoral #SupremeCourt (#TSE) announced on #Twitter three partnerships to help them fight #fakenews, #misinformation, and #disinformation with the goal of preventing those from influencing the elections.
The partnership were made with #Google, #TikTok, and Twitter. Fact-checkers are also helping the TSE. Google and Twitter have long been accused in #Brazil, in the #UnitedStates, and in other countries of manipulating search results, and doing shadowbanning and censoring. TikTok has been in hot waters with the US for fear of spying on Americans, and fact-checkers are criticized also here and everywhere for not being accountable to anyone else (who fact-checks the fact-checkers).
TSE is urging people to denounce users who share news with others, and says that one shouldn't forward a post if:
WHAT TSE IS (DELIBERATLY?) MISSING
An average person doesn't have all the tools and/or time to go after knowing if a piece of news is a 100% true. And if they find the source, how do they know the source is true? If a TSE fack-checker says it's true, who can prove the fact-checker is true?
Many stories that eventually come out to be true were one day only unproven suspicions, and as more and more people talked about it, people with more capacity (tools and time) to investigate it, like journalists, dug deeper, finding superficial evidence, then they denounced it, and then it was investigated by the police, finally finding hard evidence. So, by discouraging people from being open about their suspicion, a lot of stories may never come to light.
It doesn't stop there. TSE will receive online voting project ideas from 29 technology companies. Three Brazilian cities are going to carry out a simulation test already in the 2020 elections. The trust in the electronic voting machine is already low, even though they work offline, and TSE is considering carrying out votes through the internet?
Why is TSE doing everything contrary to common sense?
The cofounder of the Brazilian fact-checker #AosFatos, #TaiNalon, is quoted in an article written on #UOL as stating:
“In democracies still not totally consolidated as is #Brazil, which is going through a moment of high polarization and of institutional fragility, there is a strong lack of trust in institutions and in authorities. [...] We won't be able to be a well-informed society for as long as those in positions of total or partial authority (judges, scientists, teachers, the press) are attacked because of their political agendas.”
In other words, she implies that judges, scientists, teachers, and the press are unfairly distrusted (“attacked”) because they have a political agenda. She implies that they should be believed just because of their titles, not their ideological position.
Now, who will the people believe in if there is not a consensus among judges, scientists, teachers, and the press? Who's going to decide which group of judges, scientists, teachers, and of the press we should believe in?
#Bolsonaro just had his first chance to appoint a #SupremeCourt judge, but the choice wasn't so outright pleasing to his electoral base as was #AmyConeyBarrett in the #UnitedStates. They were waiting for a clearly conservative name, but the one he chose, #KassioMarques, was involved in some controversial rulings and has also had some connection to leftwing people, groups, and politicians. Many people on the right side reacted aggressively and showed strong disappointment.
The president goes live every Thursday night and on the last one he explained that many of the bad things rightwing people are accusing the judge of were not well explained and that the media was talking advantage of that to provoke discord. He also said that he knows Kassio and has had some interactions with him, and that contributed to his choice.
Three of the rulings that angered rightwingers: 👉 #CesareBattisti, an Italian that was hiding in #Brazil accused of killing 4 people back in #Italy, was denied deportation by the #STF (Supreme Court) back to Italy to pay jail time, and Kassio had a role in this, but Bolsonaro also explained that there was something to it, and that the truth is that Kassio didn't vote against his deportation; 👉 Another ruling that angered rightwingers was that he voted against a City Hall ruling against something related to the #LGBT agenda. In fact he did, but he did so so that there wouldn't be a precedent for cities to rule over anything independently of the gov't, because just as that city was voting against something from the LGBT agenda, other cities could do the opposite and the gov't wouldn't be able to do anything; 👉 He was against the #LavaJato ( #CarWash ) operation; 👉 He was against going to jail after judgement in the equivalent to the circuit court in the #UnitedStates, allowing the defendant to remain free until their case is judged by the Supreme Court.
One final factor that contributed to Bolsonaro choosing Kassio is the fact that he's a name that has more chances to be approved by the Senate. This one, actually, is the biggest factor. The president said that a name that is largely approved by his base wouldn't stand a chance given how dominated by the left the Senate still is.
There's one curious thing. Many on the left are not happy with Kassio's nomination, which could be proof that Bolsonaro's choice might have been a proper move at this moment.
These are the current infrastructure constructions #Bolsonaro administration expects to deliver in #2021. Some of them were started by his administration, and others, most of them, are the continuation of constructions started by previous administrations (which the secretary of the Department of Infrastructure is proud to make clear), breaking the habit of new administrations not continuing previous projects just so they could get all the recognition.
There are 36 constructions to be completed by the end of the 1st semester: 📌 21 road-related; 📌 1 railway-related; 📌 7 port-related; 📌 7 airport-related.
And, 22 by the end of the 2nd: 📌 8 road-related; 📌 1 railway-related; 📌 5 port-related; 📌 8 airport-related.
Totalling, as of now, 58 projects.
In 2019, all the 9 states of the northeastern region of #Brazil formed a consortium with the alleged intent to make big projects in the region less difficult to be carried out, less dependent on the gov't. This is not a problem. Consortiums of all sorts and at all levels are common practice and can greatly help develop a region in faster and more efficient way.
But, this consortium goes farther. It was made as an attempt to seek more independence from the #Bolsonaro administration due to differences in ideology, being the main proponent of the consortium a member of the PT Party, the same party of the two previous leftist administrations, #Dilma and #Lula.
But, still, being opposition per se is not a problem either. The problem is that the consortium never did anything since it started in mid 2019, even when an oil leak devastated beaches across the notheastern coast. Their first project started in February this year, when they signed a contract with a company to buy 300 ventilators for the price of about 10 million dollars.
The company they signed a contract with is called Hemp Care, a Brazilian company specialized in weed products, created less than 1 year prior to the contract and that had no expertise nor structure to produce the ventilators. Hemp Care even hired consulting companies to help them produce the ventilators, which were never delivered. Not a single one.
To make things worse, or absurd, several governors paid their share to the company ahead of time, before the contract was even signed.
This buy and the consortium are being investigated at the federal level. The governors have demanded that the investigation be made locally, but this is not possible since they used money the gov't made available through the virus emergency plan.
Some governors have been trying to give the money back (and use money from somewhere else) in order to move the case to their states.
The Labor Public Attorney Office ('Ministério Público do Trabalho') ruled the retail chain #MagazineLuiza didn't break any laws by limiting the hiring process for their 2021 trainee program for blacks only.
#Brazil has two laws that seek to balance the racial inequality. One is an antidiscrimination law that prohibits hiring based on color, sex, belief, etc, and an affirmative action law that defines quotas for certain kinds of people so that they have a minimum representation in an institution or business.
One has to be careful not to let the outrage produced by this rule and express the wish to do something in the opposite direction, especially if related to whites, which we believe could be very well what the left, which still controls most of the media, would love to happen and then have a reason to accuse one of #whitesupremacism, #whiteprivilege, #racism, etc.
Brazil has decades of leftist administrations, and leftist servants have been made more and more part of all public institutions, and one shouldn't wonder why a judge would rule in favor of this absurd. We now have a solid rightwind president and he has been doing a good job in deleftizing the system, but it's less 2 years against more than 40.
A big Brazilian retail chain called #MagazineLuiza announced that they are going to only allow black people to apply for their 2021's treinee program. The reason is to do justice due to the past of slavery and due to the institutional and systemic racism that many unfoundly claim to still exist.
ML belongs to a person who's a leftist was a strong supporter of the previous presidential administrations, so no one needs to wonder how in the world they would come to a such point.
#Brazil already has an antiracism law that keeps businesses from discriminating against people during a hiring process based on color, faith, gender, religion, etc, and also an #affirmativeaction law that defines quotas based on race at any kind of institution and also in businesses.
ML's program breaks both laws. It's a clear attempt to virtual signal and, we believe, an attempt to see the president or a secretary (minister) say something the media can use to label as racist and make news, but no one has made any annoucement about this and this is good.
Only people who are really supposed to be fighting this upfront and openly, like starting an investigation or a lawsuit, are doing so, like some representatives.
#racism #blacks #institutionalracism #systemicracism #blacklivesmatter #blm
“I am 73 years old and am campaigning for #Bolsonaro, and an upset young feminist lady approached me and asked me if I hadn't studied history; I answered, 'My dear, I lived it. It was not your pothead professor who told me.'”
This is a quote from a person called Maria Helena Cunha, who lives in #Araguari, #MinasGerais, shared on Twitter by the Congresswoman #BiaKicis.
The Association of the Military Police Officers of the City of #Natal, State of #RioGrandedoNorte, Northeast of #Brazil, plans to file a lawsuit against a private school called #ColégioMarista.
The reason is that a teacher included three cartoons on a test depicting police officers in a negative way. One of them showing a PO as a pig, and two others suggesting they are racist.
The cartoonist has been criticized, but he's not to blame; it's freedom of expression; but a teacher using these cartoons at school does look bad.