• President #Bolsonaro and the state attorney-general requested the #SupremeCourt (#STF) to rule on the unconstitutionality of lockdown and curfew measures that cities and states are putting up again. A similar request, but directed to other states in March, was rejected by the STF, and this makes many believe they will reject this new one too. But, a lot of other people are expecting that the STF is going to rule against the measures this time because the request is better formulated—an observation made by a judge-minister—and also because Bolsonaro said a couple of weeks ago that he has a decree ready to be signed that would force a military action against any city or state administrator that puts a curfew or lockdown in action. #pandemic #covid #lockdown
• #MarcoAurelio de Melo, one of the #SupremeCourt's (#STF) judge-ministers, expressed opposition to the Senate #pandemic commission hearing some governors due to accusations of federal money misuse. His opinion (which he isn't supposed to be giving) is based on the idea that the responsability to form commissions to investigate their administration is of the local houses. On the other side, the argument is that the local houses seem to be under total control of their administrators, either a governor or a mayor, and not a single commission to investigate any misuse of money was formed in any of the 27 states or in any of the 5,000 plus cities across the country. #covid
• The #SupremeCourt (#STF) voted 7-4 to deny the federal police the request to investigate the STF Judge-Minister and President Dias #Toffoli for receiving 4 million reals to help politicians in election processes while he was the president of the #SupremeElectoralCourt (#STE). No one is surprised by this decision.
• The #Bolsonaro administration is trying to pass a bill that forces fuel taxes to be shown separately on the consumers' receipt, and not just that, but also which entity is charging that amount, if it is the distributor, the gov't, or the state. The bill has been facing difficulty to go for a vote due to pressure from governors (the #SupremeCourt (#STF) has also been making it difficult) since they are charging their taxes on top of the final price and based on the final price, which is considered unconstitutional.
  
• It is believed President #Bolsonaro's last motorcycle rally in #RiodeJaneiro reached 2.6 miles in length.
• The president of the #Senate commission to investigate money misuse during the #pandemic, Senator #OmarAziz, presented a bill that would give doctors 3 years of jail time if they ever prescribed any medicine for #COVID except the vaccine. President #Bolsonaro decided to make it public on his social media, and the backlash was so intense that Aziz requested its permanent dismissal just 30 minutes later.
• The governor of #SaoPaulo, João #Doria, decided to extent the business reopening transition from May 31st to June 14th, and in some cities, even essential businesses, like, pharmacies and supermarkets, are closed. #RibeiraoPreto is one of these cities. Just a reminder, cities in the State of São Paulo, the City of São Paulo mainly, allowed the public transportation, buses and trains, to operate at a lower capacity and thus crowded for over a year. #pandemic #covid
• A movement that seeks to sue the City of #SaoPaulo for keeping schools closed, called 'Portas Abertas' ('Open Doors'), has encouraged a broader demand for other mayors and for governors to be called into accountability for not letting cities open their schools. The argument for this is that there are studies worldwide suggesting that opening schools, even if partially, does not represent a considerable risk, especially the earlier education. They claim that businesses that do not have the same kind of comprehensive study and that serve others than children were allowed to open. 10 out of the 27 states (one is not a state, but a federal district, #DistritoFederal, just like #Washington DC) have partially opened schools, but Open Doors claims this opening is too restrictive to be considered adequate. For instance, they are letting children of health workers and children in serious circumstances (for instance, homeless or abused) to attend it. In #Brazil, there is this Law of Accountability, which was the one on which ex-President #Dilma's impeachment was based. Among the reasons for a public administrator to break this law is abuse of power, and keeping schools closed when there has been neither consensus for that nor a single standard being applied can be considered abuse of power. #covid #pandemic #lockdown
• The #Congress probe into #COVID-related actions approved the hearing of 9 governors; from #Amapa, #Amazon, #DistritoFederal, #Para, #Piaui, #Rondonia, #Roraima, #SantaCatarina, and #Tocantins. #WilsonWitzel, the impeached ex-governor of #RiodeJaneiro, will be heard too. Other people are going to be heard as well. The governor of Piaui is a member of a consortium composed by some Northeastern states, and there is a separate probe into this consortium. Some representatives wanted mayors to be heard, but none was included. #pandemic
• The #Bolsonaro administration is following the steps of #Florida Governor #DeSantis and has already prepared a bill that prohibits social media platforms from removing accounts and posts solely based on their terms of use. The bill was written by a team in the Ministry (Department) of Culture, and a subsecretary called National Secretary of Copyrights and Intellectual Property would be in charge of its effectiveness. If it's signed, social media platforms can receive from a warning up to a fine of up to 10% of the company's revenue in Brazil in the year prior to the offense. #socialmedia #censorship #bigtech

• Ex-president #FernandoHenriqueCardoso (#FHC) had lunch with Ex-president #Lula at Ex-#SupremeCourt (#STF) judge-minister #NelsonJobim's home to make political peace with Lula. FHC was president two times in the 90's and until early 2000's, and his administration was responsible for the creation of Brazil's current money, the real. He and Lula were, back then, the biggest representations of the right and the left, respectively, with their parties fiercily opposing each other. Just a couple of years ago FHC was recorded on video saying, “I HEARD DURING 13 YEARS SOMEONE [Lula] SAY, 'NEVER BEFORE [IN THIS COUNTRY SUCH A GOOD THING WAS DONE/HAPPENED]. ACTUALLY, NEVER BEFORE THERE WAS SO MUCH ROBBERY. [...] BRAZIL IS BROKEN! BRAZIL WAS BROKEN BY PT [Workers Party], IT WAS BROKEN BY THE LULOPETISM, AND THIS CURRENT CRISIS, AS GOVERNOR #ALCKMIN PUTS IT, 'WILL HAVE A HIGH COST ON BRAZILIANS.' [...] IN THE US, I WAS RECENTLY PAID A HOMAGE, AND THEY SAID I LOST POPULARITY. POPULARITY WE LOSE AND WE REGAIN. WHAT I NEVER LOST WAS MY CREDIBILITY.” Many political analysts are struggling to see the strategy behind FHC's support for Lula. He basically threw himself and his party under the bus, since his party was trying to picture itself as a third, a moderate alternative. They have not convincing too many, but some PSDB politicians have been doing a reasonable job, meaning people's perspective on them was not getting bad at a high rate, so we thought they were trying to keep the rate slower until it stopped and then get back to go up. What could be going on there? Does FHC and the PSDB has a heck of a card under their sleeve that's beyond any political analyst can guess? Is it desperation? Is it FHC saying “effe the world” and coming out (before he dies) as the leftist he always was inside? Is it some kind of pressure beyond the party's power to control?
• The decision of the #SupremeCourt (#STF) whether the federal police will be allowed to investigate the STF's president #Toffoli for being accused of receiving millions in bribery to help candidates in electoral complication when he was the president of the #SupremeElectionCourt (#STE) will come out on Friday. There is a lot of doubt this permission will be granted, since an eventual arrest of such a high profile judge (if he ever steps a foot in jail, which is already a far-fetched scene in Brazil) could result in a chain reaction and could affect other judge-ministers, some suggest.
• The ex-minister of health Eduardo #Pazuello, who is a military, attended the motorcycle rally organized by President #Bolsonaro and now some military and the opposition is asking for his punishment for the fact that he is an ative-duty general, and as such, he could not attend political events. If he is, he'll become a reserve. After he left the ministry, he got a job near the presidency so he could continue close to Bolsonaro. Him becoming a reserve, at least politically speaking, doesn't do him any bad, since he left the ministry with a good approval rate, a great relationship with the administration, no apparent rejection from most people regarding his performance while dealing with the #COVID crisis in #Manaus, and many others are trying to convince him to run for governor of his homestate #RiodeJaneiro.
• President #Bolsonaro organized another motorcycle rally this last Sunday, this time in #RiodeJaneiro, and the number of riders is already, and by far, the largest of any motorcycle event ever hosted there. The fact that he is the president played a factor, obviously, but the massive attendance is one (more) evidence that he is not the “most unpopular president in history” the big old marxist mainstream media tries to sell 24/7. At the end of rally, #Bolsonaro spoke to the attendees.
• The Federal Police foiled a school shooting from happening in #Brasilia. It was an American agency that informed the Brazilian police about a 19-year-old girl who was planning to commit #massshootings in several places. She has already confessed to the plan, but police has not released her name yet because they apparently have evidence that she is linked to some group.
• Last week, President #Bolsonaro made a surprise helicopter landing on a public soccer field at a small city called #SenadorLaRocque in the State of #Maranhao, an allegedly leftist stronghold, as is known to be the Brazilian northeastern states, but the amount of people that gathered to express support contrasts with the unpopular image the big old mainstream media tries to sell 24/7, that is that he is the most unpopular president in history.
• Journalist #OswaldoEstaquio, arrested twiced by the #SupremeCourt (#STF) and left paralyzed from waist down on the second time, when then reports said he had suffered an accident at hospital, spoke last week to the police about the event and made some revelations. He said that when he got to the detention center in December 18th last year, a police officer called him 'animal' because he was refusing to eat in protest for how he was being treated—he was accused, judged, and arrested by order of one judge-minister of the STF, #AlexandredeMoraes, which is considered unconstitutional. Not even a formal police report De Moraes made. Estáquio insulted the officer back the same way. The prison guard, in retaliation, told the other prisoners that, because of Eustáquio's misbehavior, they would not have their sunbath time and he was going to be punished. He was taken to the solitary, where, on the way, a police officer was telling him what to say and how to respond to an officer. At some point, he was slapped on his face, and at the end of the hall to the solitary, he was hit with a baton. Swearing and beating followed, and they demanded he called himself 'animal.' At some moment, “ONE OF THEM DID AN ARM WRENCH ON ME, THEN ANOTHER OFFICER GOT AHOLD OF MY OTHER ARM. A THIRD OFFICER CAME TOWARDS ME WITH A BATON AND STARTED TO CHOKE ME WITH IT. I FELT PAIN EVERYWHERE AND I RAN OUT OF BREATH. I WOKE UP SHIRTLESS AND WITH MANY BRUISES.” On the 21st he was quickly taken to hospital. A foresinc exam was not performed. One congresswoman, #BiaKicis, today chair of the Constitution Commission in the Congress, went there to give support to his wife (who had already been part of the Ministry of Human Rights' staff) and to help her have access to him, but police barely let her. Eustáquio is in home arrest for being paralyzed. Only a very small part of his interview was released, where he doesn't name any of the officers or give any details about how he got paralyzed.

• Yesterday, prosecutor #ThaisPossati, 35 and in her 27th week of pregnancy, took the #AstraZeneca/#Fiocruz shot, suffered a stroke, was taken to an ER, but her and her baby died. There's no information on if she already had any serious health condition. A few hours later, #ANVISA (the health regulatory agency) posted a recommendation for pregnant women not to be given the AstraZeneca/Fiocruz vaccine. Unfortunately, many people (although a minority) who don't have a serious health condition and are young are taking the #COVID shot on their own. TBB doesn't know if this was Thais' case.
• The Feds asked the #SupremeCourt (#STF) for an authorization to open an investigation on the STF Judge-Minister #DiasToffoli. This a first in the history of #Brazil. #Toffoli was informed on by #SergioCabral for receiving payments totalling 4 million reals in bribery while he was one of the judge-ministers of the #ElectoralSupremeCourt in order to judge in favor of two mayors in the State of #RiodeJaneiro. Cabral was Rio's governor from 2007 to 2014, when he resigned to avoid losing his political rights. After becoming a defendand for the tenth time in 2017, he was sentenced to 14 years in jail. He became a defendent again and again, receiving further sentencing, and he has now accumulated more than 280 years. His sentencing is in a stark contrast to how high profile politicians are held accountable in Brazil. #Lula, for instance, recently had all his charges dropped. There's little doubt all this sentencing is a retaliation agaisnt Cabral. Toffoli was STF's president from 2018 to 2020, just when an avalanche of requests for further investigations were sent to the STF following Cabral's hearing, twelve in total, and Toffoli, as president, dismissed every single one of them. The question now is if the STF will authorize this investigation on Toffoli. Some say the STF has no way out, that dismissing the request means looking bad for them, giving the impression that Toffoli is hiding something and his colleagues are giving him cover. But, considering that an investigation on Toffoli can lead to the implication of other big fish, and that the STF already looks quite bad before the population due to their several and recent controversial rulings and that they don't seem to care, the chances of this request being denied is quite high, and if it is, there's nothing the Feds can do.

JUDGE ALEXANDRE DE MORAIS VS CONGRESSMAN DANIEL SILVEIRA

#SupremeCourt (#STF) Judge #AlexandredeMorais issued an arrest warranty against conservative representative #DanielSilveira. Morais is infamously known (among other things) for ordering the arrest of a journalist twice, whose title of 'journalist' was ignored by him in official documents, being called a 'blogger' instead, and who got paralyzed from waist down during prison the second time.

Silveira posted a video where he says, “BE A MAN ONCE IN YOUR LIFE” [...] “YOU [JUDGE #FACHIN], [JUDGE] ALEXANDRE DE MORAIS, [JUDGE] #MARCOAURELIO, [JUDGE] #GILMARMENDES, THE ONE THAT FREES CRIMINALS ALL THE TIME, GIVES HABEAS CORPUS ALL THE TIME, SELLS HABEAS CORPUS, SELLS SENTENCINGS. 'HEY THERE! HE WAS ARRESTED? HERE, SEND HIM TO ME!' YOU DISRESPECT THE INTERNAL RULES; THIS LITTLE SUPREME COURT, WHICH IS NO SUPREME. THE REQUIREMENTS FOR YOU TO BECOME A JUDGE-MINISTER IS IN THE ARTICLE 101 OF THE #CONSTITUTION; BUT YOU ALL ARE EMPTY, INNOCUOUS, RETARDED, THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE. ESPECIALLY YOU, FACHIN. YOU ARE PART OF THE VERY SHIT THAT [THE STF] IS.”

“HERE'S THE THING, FACHIN. EVERYBODY IS FULL OF YOUR SON-OF-B***H'S FACE, THIS VAGABOND'S FACE” [...] “SEVERAL TIMES I VISUALIZED YOU BEING BEATEN UP. NOT ONLY YOU, BUT ALL THIS COURT'S MEMBERS” [...] “WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SAY? THAT I AM ENCOURAGING VIOLENCE? NO, I JUST IMAGINED, AND ME IMAGINING MYSELF DOING SUCH A THING, YOU KNOW IT'S” [imagining hurting someone in advance, speaking about it, but not doing it] “NOT A CRIME” [because he has an extra constitutional protection when it comes to free speech compared to a regular citizen, where he can only be punish for his speech, it doesn't matter what he says, literally, by the Congress].

“I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO DO WITH THE GENERALS” [...] “THE LITTLE MEN OF THE GOLDEN BUTTONS [one way leftists sarcastically refer to the military], DO YOU REMEMBER? I KNOW YOU REMEMBER; INSTITUTIONAL ACT N° 5 [#AI5]; YOU WERE A PT MILITANT, FROM A COMMUNIST PARTY, FROM THE COMMUNIST ALLIANCE OF #BRAZIL” [the AI5 was the fifth of seventeen institutional acts written during the military regime that defined the actions taken in order to reorganize the government. The AI number 5 was the most polemic, as it allowed for the dissolve of the Congress and the Senate.]

“I TOTALLY AGREE WITH [THE EX-MINISTER OF EDUCATION] #ABRAHAMWEINTRAUB WHEN HE SAID [during a ministerial meeting] 'IF IT WAS UP TO ME, I'D PUT ALL THESE VAGABONDS IN JAIL.'” [...] “I'M GOING TO GO AFTER YOU. I'M NOT AFRAID OF VAGABONDS, OF DRUG DEALERS, OF MURDERS; I'M GOING TO BE AFRAID OF 11 THAT ARE OF NO USE FOR OUR COUNTRY? NO, I WON'T. I KNOW WHO YOU WALK ALONG, WHAT YOU DO.”

After he was notified of his arrest, he recorded another video while he waited for the arrival of the federal police, in which, in part, he says, “FROM THIS POINT ON, THE LEVEL OF THE GAME IS A LITTLE HIGHER. I'M GOING TO DEDICATE EACH AND EVERY MINUTE OF MY TERM TO SHOW WHO ALEXANDRE DE MORAIS, FACHIN, MARCO AURÉLIO DE MELO, GILMAR MENDES, #TOFFOLI, #LEWANDOWSKI ARE. I'M GOING TO PUT EACH ONE OF YOU IN YOUR PLACE. I DON'T CARE. FOR MY COUNTRY, I'M WILLING TO KILL, TO DIE, TO BE ARRESTED, IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT. YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO MAKE ME FEAR YOU. IT'S THE CONGRESS WHO WILL DECIDE OVER KEEPING ME ARRESTED. YOU JUST RIPPED UP THE CONSTITUTION ONCE AGAIN. I'M LETTING EVERYONE KNOW SO THAT THEY KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON, SO THAT I CAN SHOW BRAZIL WHO'S ITS ENEMY. OTHER THAN THAT, I'M GOING TO SLEEP IN JAIL, AND LET'S SEE WHAT'S NEXT. LET'S SEE WHO'S WHO. [LET'S SEE IF] IT'S [ABOUT] YOU OR [ABOUT] ME AND THE PEOPLE.

Some hours after his arrest, there was a vote in the STF to know if there was majority support, and all of them voted to keep Daniel Silveira arrested, including the vote of #Bolsonaro's appointee #KassioNunes.

We don't know if Silveira's seemingly unconstitutional arrest has anything to do with prompting this, but Bolsonaro just nominated four names for the #RepublicCouncil, among them, two military, one of them a very solid conservative, General #AugustoHeleno, currently the secretary (minister) of the Department of Institutional Security. The Republic Council is responsible for giving a final opinion on the need for a political intervention, a national defense law, or a martial law, and also for matters related to the balanced relationship of the institutions.

Dozens of big politicians and many celebrities from the left already said and expressed themselves publicly against Bolsonaro in a threatening, disrespectful, and defamatory way innumerous times and neither the STF nor any of its judges ever at least said a word condemning the acts, so Silveira's arrest seems to be one more attempt to input fear into conservatives and to pressure Bolsonaro into losing it and thus give the STF and the Congress a reason to impeach him. Judge-minister Mendes came to the point of saying in a live last year that Bolsonaro was responsible for a genocide when referring to the #pandemic. Absolutely nothing happened to him and none of his colleagues made any comments.

The document containing the order for the arrest says that the video justifies an arrest warranty for a flagrant act, since the video is still circulating. We, the TBB, had a lot of difficulty to find the original video. We could only find clips and read transcripts in order to write this post. Even the channel where it was posted no longer exists. According to the Article 53 of Section V of the Constitution, the STF is responsible for ultimately certifying congresspeople's and senators' election. After that, the STF no longer has power over them. If they are caught committing an unbailable crime, then the most the STF can do is to ask the Congress to act.

The Congress is supposed to receive from the STF the formal accusation within 24 hours so that it can be taken to a vote in order to be decided if the arrest is acceptable. Some are citing the Articles 22 and 23 of the National Security Law, which say that one can be arrested for inciting violence, instability among institutions, or threatening animosity between the people and government institutions, punishable with 1 to 4 years in jail.

In the 2005 edition of Alexandre de Morais' own book 'Constitutional Rights' he quotes the words of another person to illustrate how congresspeople have their speech protected, where it says they can't be arrested for “THOUGHT OR WORD CRIMES, SUCH AS CRIME AGAINST THE HONOR, CRIME INCITEMENT, ORAL DISRESPECT FOR RELIGION, ETC.”

The judge-minister Marco Aurélio stated, referring to the Congress vote, “CONGRESSPEOPLE WILL BE ACCOUNTED FOR IN 2022 IF THEY FREE A RIGHTWING FANATIC AND POPULIST [COLLEAGUE].”

All Daniel Silveira's social media pages were shut down on the day of his arrest.