THE BRAZILIAN BOT

GilDiniz

  • Minister (Secretary) of Science, Technology, and Innovation #MarcosPontes signed Brazil's entry into the #ArtemisProgram. During US Ambassador #ToddChapman's speech, he told a curious story about aviation pioneer #SantosDumont. In his words, “IT'S WORTH REMEMBERING THAT SANTOS DUMONT NOT ONLY WAS A PIONEER IN AVIATION, BUT ALSO A PIONEER IN BRAZIL-#UNITEDSTATES COOPERATION. IN 1903, HE ALLOWED AN AMERICAN WOMAN, #AIDADEACOSTA, TO PILOT ONE OF HIS AIRSHIPS ALONE, HELPING HER BE THE FIRST WOMAN TO PILOT A POWERED AIRCRAFT.” The Artemis Program also seeks to take the first woman and the first black man to the moon.
  • Facial recognition technology is starting to be tested in some airports in Brazil. According to the Ministry (Department) of Infrastructure, the Brazilian law against the collection of personal data without a person's consent (#LGPD) will guarantee freedom to those who don't wish to use this system. #privacy
  • President #Bolsonaro said he will veto the vaccine certification in case it is approved in the Lower House. Guilherme #Fiuza, a commentator at #OsPingosNosIs radio and YouTube show, said, “LOOK, SOME ASK WHY SO MANY PEOPLE GO TO STREETS [IN SUPPORT] FOR THIS PRESIDENT, AND I HAVE A HYPOTHESIS. HE PRESENTS HIMSELF AS THE COSIGNER OF FREEDOM. I'M LOOKING AT THIS IN A COLD WAY. THE COSIGNER OF FREEDOM TODAY IS PRESIDENT BOLSONARO. WHEN THE LOCKDOWN WAS FOUND TO BE A GROSS MEASURE, DAMNING, AND WITHOUT EFFICACY IN KEEPING THE #PANDEMIC [FROM SPREADING], HE ROSE AGAINST THIS AND PROPOSED—I DON'T KNOW IF HE HAD AN ELABORATE PLAN, I THINK NOBODY HAS ONE—BUT, HE DENOUNCED THIS SUPPRESSION OF FREEDOM [...]. [THIS CERTIFICATION OF VACCINATION] WILL CREATE A SUBCITIZENSHIP FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T BE VACCINATED AND THOSE WHO HAVE THEIR REASONS TO DOUBT THE EFFICACY OF THE VACCINE. [...] IN OTHER WORDS, THAT ONE WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE CARICATURE OF A DICTATOR IS THE VERY ONE THAT'S COSIGNING OUR FREEDOM, AND THE POPULATION SEES THIS.” #humanrights #pandemic #covid

  • In an interview to journalist Luís Ernesto #Lacombe, Minister (Secretary) of Human Rights, Family, and Women #DamaresAlves said she believes that President #Bolsonaro should not veto the vaccine certification in case it's passed in the Lower House (already passed in the Upper). He has said several times he'd be against any mandatory vaccination or the use of a vaccine certificate to be granted access to places, but Damares argued the vaccine being the most effective fight against the Chinese virus is a unanimous thinking in the science field around the world, and that the discussion hovers around its quality, not its necessity, but there's a contradiction here. If its quality is still worthy of discussion, why does she think Bolsonaro should not veto it? #humanrights #pandemic #covid

  • #ABRASEL (Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants) started a class action in 275 cities across all Brazilian states demanding financial reparations from cities and states due to lockdowns put in place during the #pandemic. #covid

  • The #Senate approved by 72 to 9 a bill called Immunization and Sanitary Safety Certification, some sort of #vaccinationpassport, which grants access to cultural and sport events, and to travel to natural parks and with companies that demand their passengers to be vaccinated, all in accordance to the guidelines of the #EuropeanUnion's #DigitalGreenCertificate, also known as #DigitalCOVIDCertificate or #EUDCC. The bill will now head to the House of Representatives. If approved, places should have signs in front of them saying that the access will only be allowed if the visitor holds the certificate. #pandemic #covid #humanrights

  • The #ElectoralSupremeCourt (#TSE) is trying to contact the people responsible for the messaging app #Telegram to talk to them about the next elections. They say Telegram is a problem and it's being difficult to reach them. TSE considers them a threat for the next elections. They were able to get cooperation from #WhatsApp, that vastly limited the number of people one can share a message with, limited the size of groups, and censured content. TSE hopes to achieve the same kind of cooperation from Telegram, but they are already considering pushing for the approval of new legislation to limit Telegram's operation in Brazil unless they follow the TSE's rules. #electionprocess

  • The #SupremeCourt Justice Luís Roberto #Barroso have recorded videos defending the voting machines and criticizing the government's push for passing the addition of paper trail to the voting machines. The mixing of the systems are ignored by Justice Barroso and other critics, who only say the gov't wants to get back to paper, giving the impression they want to get rid of the machines. The idea defendended by supporters is to let the voter see (through a glass panel) their vote printed on paper, and once they confirm that the vote on paper reflects what they pressed on the machine, the voter confirms and the paper is released into a ballot box. If a result is contested and there's strong evidence to support it, a recount can happen, but this recount is not immediate (can take days or weeks or even months to happen) and doesn't keep the result from being made public by electronic means only. The winners are going to be confirmed as soon as the eletronic data is available. Manual counting can happen while incurring no problems to the one currently in office. Barroso's activism doesn't stop there. Not only is he recording videos in Portuguese but also in English, in French, and in Spanish. What would he be recording them in those languages for? And things get worse. He has already talked with the leaders of ten parties. You didn't read wrong. One of our Supreme Court judge-ministers is recording videos and giving interviews defending the voting machine and criticizing (and lying about) the addition of the paper trail, and also looking to strengthen the opposition parties to vote against this change by talking to them in person. These meetings are not a secret, many news outlets are writing about this, and you can find the videos on TSE's channel on YouTube under the name 'justicaeleitoral.' #electoralprocess #votingsystem

  • In the State of #Alagoas, the Military Police removed Lieutenant-colonel #MarcosVanderlei from the position of subcommander of the Capital Patrolling Command after he posted a picture on social media posing next to President #Bolsonaro (with this one hugging him) while the president was visiting this Northeastern state. According to the general-commander of the Military Police, Vanderlei's dismissal was an order from #PalmaresPalace, Alagoas' administrative headquarters, and according to Vanderlei himself, his dismissal was due to his online criticism of the governor's administration, #RenanFilho, and of #RenanCalheiros, Filho's father and senator.

  • #SaoPaulo Mayor João #Doria announced his plan to have the whole population of the state vaccinated by September 15th. #RiodeJaneiro Mayor #EduardoPaes also said that he expects 'everybody' to be vaccinated by September. It's not clear what they mean by everybody, if they mean everybody who needs the vaccine. #covid #pandemic

  • President #Bolsonaro helped organize and attended a third motorcycle rally in a span of about a month. This time it took place on Saturday in #SaoPaulo. The rally took off at #Sambodromo, SP, passed by the city of #Jundiai, and went back to SP stopping at #IbirapueraPark—an about 65-mile ride—where he spoke. Bolsonaro, his son #EduardoBolsonaro, Secretary (Minister) of the Environment #RicardoSalles, of Science, Technology, and Innovation #MarcosPontes, of Infrastructure #TarcisiodeFreitas, Congresswoman #CarlaZambelli, and Congressman #GilDiniz were among the attendees. At least 12 thousand motorcyclists attended the rally.

  • One of the judge-ministers of the #SupremeCourt (#STF), #EdsonFachin, in a monocratic decision, nullified the sentence former president #Lula received in four charges, meaning he can no longer even be considered a ex-criminal, and also he's got back all his rights to run for a political position. Fachin always showed support for the left before he was appointed to be judge-minister in 2015 by former president #DilmaRousseff, for whom he recorded a campaign video in her favor in 2010. But, this, per se, still doesn't fully explain his monocratic and outrageous decision. What might be a reason behind it was the imminent arrest of #DeltanDallagnol and #SergioMoro. Lula's sentence's nullification means illegal #LavaJato practices would have no more legal implications. According to a tweet by #Dallagnol, #Fachin's argument for the nullification was that Lula's process should have taken place in #Brasilia, not #Curitiba, due to jurisdiction issues, an opinion Dallagnol disagrees on and writes it had been already discussed by the STF. Coincidentally or not, 2 days prior to Fachin's decision, Lula is reported asking #FernandoHaddad (who ran against #Bolsonaro) if he'd be his vice in a future campaign, and 1 day prior, democrat-like Senator #HumbertoCosta tweeted a picture of Lula at a gym with the text, “YOU BETTER GET READY...” Fachin's decision will be reviewed by the full bench. Some judge-ministers are (allegedly) not Ok by the prospect of seeing #Moro get away with his illegal actions. #haddad
  • Two videos posted last weekend show the front of #SaoPaulo's mayor, #JoaoDoria, home being heavily secured. In them, we can spot 1 full-size VAN, 15 cars (compact hatches, and small and mid-size SUVs), 8 motorcycles, and at least 23 police officers. Later on the weekend, a group of dozens of people gathered at one corner of his street (that was blocked) to protest the excessive security, the high expenses in propaganda by the state, the strong pandemic measures, and the fact that his son was filmed making a party in one of his dad's companies' buildings where nobody (that was captured in the video) where wearing a mask or were social distancing. According to conservative congressman #GilDiniz, there were at least 250 police officers there. We still don't know the reason why for such security. The video of his son's party immediately got viral and call #Doria's attention, who went there to personally confront the person who posted the images. He starts speaking to her without a mask while pointing his finger at her, and he says she's posting fake videos. He exposed her full name on social media and kept pushing that she posted fake videos, and now she's planning to seek compensation for doxing and false accusation. She's to be heard this Wednesday at the police. #covid #pandemic #fakenews