by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with Consortium News by special agreement with the author)
Stripped to its essence, the Brazilian presidential elections represent a direct clash between democracy and an early 21st Century neofascism, indeed between civilization and barbarism, writes Pepe Escobar.
Nothing less than the future of politics across the West – and across the Global South – is being played out in Brazil.
Stripped to its essence, the Brazilian presidential elections represent a direct clash between democracy and an early 21st Century, neofascism, indeed between civilization and barbarism.
Geopolitical and global economic reverberations will be immense. The Brazilian dilemma illuminates all the contradictions surrounding the Right populist offensive across the West, juxtaposed to the inexorable collapse of the Left. The stakes could not be higher.
Jair Bolsonaro, an outright supporter of Brazilian military dictatorships of last century, who has been normalized as the “extreme-right candidate,” won the first round of the presidential elections on Sunday with more than 49 million votes. That was 46 percent of the total, just shy of a majority needed for an outright win. This in itself is a jaw-dropping development.
His opponent, Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party (PT), got only 31 million votes, or 29 percent of the total. He will now face Bolsonaro in a runoff on October 28. A Sisyphean task awaits Haddad: just to reach parity with Bolsonaro, he needs every single vote from those who supported the third and fourth-placed candidates, plus a substantial share of the almost 20 percent of votes considered null and void.
Meanwhile, no less than 69 percent of Brazilians, according to the latest polls, profess their support for democracy. That means 31 percent do not.
No Tropical Trump
Dystopia Central does not even begin to qualify it. Progressive Brazilians are terrified of facing a mutant “Brazil” (the movie) cum Mad Max wasteland ravaged by evangelical fanatics, rapacious neoliberal casino capitalists and a rabid military bent on recreating a Dictatorship 2.0.
Bolsonaro: Danger for Brazil.
Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper, is being depicted by Western mainstream media essentially as the Tropical Trump. The facts are way more complex.
Bolsonaro, a mediocre member of Congress for 27 years with no highlights on his C.V., indiscriminately demonizes blacks, the LGBT community, the Left as a whole, the environment “scam” and most of all, the poor. He’s avowedly pro-torture. He markets himself as a Messiah – a fatalistic avatar coming to “save” Brazil from all those “sins” above.
The Goddess of the Market, predictably, embraces him. “Investors” – those semi-divine entities – deem him good for “the market”, with his last-minute offensive in the polls mirroring a rally in the Brazilian real and the Sao Paulo stock exchange.
Bolsonaro may be your classic extreme-right “savior” in the Nazi mould. He may embody Right populism to the core. But he’s definitely not a “sovereignist” – the motto of choice in political debate across the West. His “sovereign” Brazil would be run more like a retro-military dictatorship totally subordinated to Washington’s whims.
Bolsonaro’s ticket is compounded by a barely literate, retired general as his running mate, a man who is ashamed of his mixed race background and is frankly pro-eugenics. General Antonio Hamilton Mourão has even revived the idea of a military coup.
Manipulating the ticket, we find massive economic interests, tied to mineral wealth, agro-business and most of all the Brazilian Bible Belt. It is complete with death squads against Native Brazilians, landless peasants and African-American communities. It is a haven for the weapons industry. Call it the apotheosis of tropical neo-pentecostal, Christian-Zionism.
Praise the Lord
Brazil has 42 million evangelicals – and over 200 representatives in both branches of Parliament. Don’t mess with their jihad. They know how to exercise massive appeal among the beggars at the neoliberal banquet. The Lula Left simply didn’t know how to seduce them.
So even with echoes of Mike Pence, Bolsonaro is the Brazilian Trump only to a certain extent: his communication skills – talking tough, simplistically, is language understandable to a seven-year old. Educated Italians compare him to Matteo Salvini, the Lega leader, now Minister of Interior. But that’s also not exactly the case.
Bolsonaro is a symptom of a much larger disease. He has only reached this level, a head-to-head in the second round against Lula’s candidate Haddad, because of a sophisticated, rolling, multi-stage, judicial/congressional/business/media Hybrid War unleashed on Brazil.
Way more complex than any color revolution, Hybrid War in Brazil featured a law-fare coup under cover of the Car Wash anti-corruption investigation. That led to the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and Lula being thrown in jail on corruption charges with no hard evidence or smoking gun.
In every poll Lula would win these elections hand down. The coup plotters managed to imprison him and prevent him from running. Lula’s right to run was highlighted by everyone from Pope Francis to the UN’s Human Rights Council, as well as Noam Chomsky. Yet in a delightful historical twist, the coup plotters’ scenario blew up in their faces as the front-runner to lead the country is not one of them, but a neofascist.
“One of them” would ideally be a faceless bureaucrat affiliated with the former social democrats, the PSDB, turned hardcore neoliberals addicted to posing as Center Left when they are the “acceptable” face of the neoliberal Right. Call them Brazilian Tony Blairs. Specific Brazilian contradictions, plus the advance of Right populism across the West, led to their downfall.
Even Wall Street and the City of London (which endorsed Hybrid War on Brazil after it was unleashed by NSA spying of oil giant Petrobras) have started entertaining second thoughts on supporting Bolsonaro for president of a BRICS nation, which is a leader of the Global South, and until a few years ago, was on its way to becoming the fifth largest economy in the world.
It all hangs on the “vote transfer” mechanism from Lula to Haddad and the creation of a serious, multi-party Progressive Democratic Front on the second round to defeat the rising neofascism. They have less than three weeks to pull it off.
The Bannon Effect
Bannon: Danger for Europe.
It’s no secret that Steve Bannon is advising the Bolsonaro campaign in Brazil. One of Bolsonaro’s sons, Eduardo, met with Bannon in New York two months ago after which the Bolsonaro camp decided to profit from Bannon’s supposed “peerless” social engineering insights.
Bolsonaro’s son tweeted at the time, “We’re certainly in touch to join forces, especially against Cultural Marxism.” That was followed by an army of bots disgorging an avalanche of fake news up to Election Day.
A specter haunts Europe. Its name is Steve Bannon. The specter has moved on to the tropics.
In Europe, Bannon is now poised to intervene like an angel of doom in a Tintoretto painting heralding the creation of a EU-wide Right Populist coalition.
Bannon is notoriously praised to high heavens by Italian Interior Minister Salvini; Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban; Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders; and scourge of the Paris establishment, Marine Le Pen.
Last month, Bannon set up The Movement; at first sight just a political start-up in Brussels with a very small staff. But talk about Boundless Ambition: their aim is no less than turning the European parliamentary elections in May 2019 upside down.
The European parliament in Strasbourg – a bastion of bureaucratic inefficiency – is not exactly a household name across the EU. The parliament is barred from proposing legislation. Laws and budgets can only be blocked via a majority vote.
Bannon aims at capturing at least one-third of the seats in Strasbourg. He’s bound to apply tested American-style methods such as intensive polling, data analysis, and intensive social media campaigns – much the same as in Bolsonaro’s case. But there’s no guarantee it will work, of course.
The foundation stone of The Movement was arguably laid in two key meetings in early September set up by Bannon and his right-hand man, Mischael Modrikamen, chairman of the quite small Belgian Parti Populaire (PP). The first meeting was in Rome with Salvini and the second in Belgrade with Orban.
Modrikamen defines the concept as a “club” which will “collect funds from donors, in America and Europe, to make sure ‘populist’ ideas can be heard by the citizens of Europe who perceive more and more that Europe is not a democracy anymore.”
Modrikamen insists, “We are all sovereignists.” The Movement will hammer four themes that seem to form a consensus among disparate, EU-wide political parties: against “uncontrolled immigration”; against “Islamism”; favoring “security” across the EU; and supporting “a Europe of sovereign nations, proud of their identity.”
The Movement should really pick up speed after next month’s midterms in the U.S. In theory, it could congregate different parties from the same nation under its umbrella. That could be a very tall order, even taller than the fact key political actors already have divergent agendas.
Wilders wants to blow up the EU. Salvini and Orban want a weak EU but they don’t want to get rid of its institutions. Le Pen wants a EU reform followed by a “Frexit” referendum.
The only themes that unite this mixed Right Populism bag are nationalism, a fuzzy anti-establishment drive and a – quite popular – disgust with the EU’s overwhelming bureaucratic machine.
Here we find some common ground with Bolsonaro, who poses as a nationalist and as against the Brazilian political system – even though he’s been in Parliament for ages.
There’s no rational explanation for Bolsonaro’s last-minute surge among two sections of the Brazilian electorate that deeply despise him: women and the Northeast region, which has always been discriminated against by the wealthier South and Southeast.
Much like Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 U.S. election, Bolsonaro’s campaign targeted undecided voters in Northeastern states, as well as women voters, with a barrage of fake news demonizing Haddad and the Workers’ Party. It worked like a charm.
The Italian Job
I’ve just been to northern Italy checking out how popular Salvini really is. Salvini defines the May 2019 European Parliament elections as “the last chance for Europe.” Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero sees them as the first “real election for the future of Europe.” Bannon also sees the future of Europe being played in Italy.
It’s quite something to seize the conflicting energy in the air in Milan, where Salvini’s Lega is quite popular while at the same time Milan is a globalized city crammed with ultra-progressive pockets.
At a political debate about a book published by the Bruno Leoni Institute regarding exiting the euro, Roberto Maroni, a former governor of the powerful Lombardia region, remarked: “Italexit is outside of the formal agenda of the government, of the Lega and of the center-right.” Maroni should know, after all he was one of the Lega’s founders.
He hinted however that major changes are on the horizon. “To form a group in the European parliament, the numbers are important. This is the moment to show up with a unique symbol among parties of many nations.”
It’s not only Bannon and The Movement’s Modrikamen. Salvini, Le Pen and Orban are convinced they can win the 2019 elections – with the EU transformed into a “Union of European Nations.” This would include not just a couple of big cities where all the action is, with the rest reduced to fly over status. Right Populism argues that France, Italy, Spain, and Greece are no longer nations – only mere provinces.
Macron: Perfect “progressive” wolf to be released among the sheep.
Right Populism derives immense satisfaction that its main enemy is the self-described “Jupiter” Macron – mocked across France by some as the “Little Sun King.” President Emmanuel Macron must be terrified that Salvini is emerging as the “leading light” of European nationalists.
This is what Europe seems to be coming to: a trashy, Salvini vs. Macron cage match.
Arguably the Salvini vs. Macron fight in Europe might be replicated as Bolsonaro vs. Haddad in Brazil. Some sharp Brazilian minds are convinced Haddad is the Brazilian Macron.
In my view he is not. His has a background in philosophy and he’s a former, competent mayor of Sao Paulo, one of the most complex megalopolises on the planet. Macron is a Rothschild mergers and acquisitions banker. Unlike Macron, who was engineered by the French establishment as the perfect “progressive” wolf to be released among the sheep, Haddad embodies what’s left of really progressive Left.
On top of that – unlike virtually the whole Brazilian political spectrum – Haddad is not corrupt. He’d have to offer the requisite pound of flesh to the usual suspects if he wins of course. But he’s not out to be their puppet.
Compare Bolsonaro’s Trumpism, apparent in his last-minute message before Election Day: “Make Brazil Great Again,” with Trump’s Trumpism.
Bolsonaro’s tools are unmitigated praise of the Motherland; the Armed Forces; and the flag.
But Bolsonaro is not interested in defending Brazilian industry, jobs and culture. On the contrary. A graphic example is what happened in a Brazilian restaurant in Deerfield Beach, Florida, a year ago: Bolsonaro saluted the American flag and chanted “USA! USA!”
That’s undiluted MAGA – without a “B”.
Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale and author of How Fascism Works, takes us further. Stanley stresses how “the idea in fascism is to destroy economic politics… The corporatists side with politicians who use fascist tactics because they are trying to divert people’s attention from the real forces that cause the genuine anxiety they feel.”
Bolsonaro has mastered these diversionist tactics. And he excels in demonizing so-called Cultural Marxism. Bolsonaro fits Stanley’s description as applied to the U.S.:
“Liberalism and Cultural Marxism destroyed our supremacy and destroyed this wonderful past where we ruled and our cultural traditions were the ones that dominated. And then it militarizes the feeling of nostalgia. All the anxiety and loss that people feel in their lives, say from the loss of their healthcare, the loss of their pensions, the loss of their stability, then gets rerouted into a sense that the real enemy is liberalism, which led to the loss of this mythic past.”
In the Brazilian case, the enemy is not liberalism but the Workers’ Party, derided by Bolsonaro as “a bunch of communists.” Celebrating his astonishing first round victory, he said Brazil was on the edge of a corrupt, communist “abyss” and could either choose a path of “prosperity, freedom, family” or “the path of Venezuela”.
The Car Wash investigation enshrined the myth that the Workers’ Party and the whole Left is corrupt (but not the Right). Bolsonaro overextended the myth: every minority and social class is a target – in his mind they are “communists” and “terrorists.”
Goebbels comes to mind – via his crucial text The Radicalization of Socialism, where he emphasized the necessity of portraying the center-left as Marxists and socialists because, as Stanley notes, “the middle class sees in Marxism not so much the subverter of national will, but mainly the thief of its property.”
That’s at the center of Bolsonaro’s strategy of demonizing the Workers Party – and the Left in general. The strategy of course is drenched in fake news – once again mirroring what Stanley writes about U.S. history: “The whole concept of empire is based on fake news. All of colonization is based on fake news.”
Right Against Left Populism?
Haddad: Three weeks to head off Bolsonaro
As I wrote in a previous column, the Left in the West is like a deer caught in the headlights when it comes to fighting Right populism.
Sharp minds from Slavoj Zizek to Chantal Mouffe are trying to conceptualize an alternative – without being able to coin the definitive neologism. Left populism? Popularism? Ideally, that should be “democratic socialism” – but no one, in a post-ideology, post-truth environment, would dare utter the dreaded word.
The ascent of Right populism is a direct consequence of the emergence of a profound crisis of political representation all over the West; the politics of identity erected as a new mantra; and the overwhelming power of social media, which allows – in Umberto Eco’s peerless definition – the ascent of “the idiot of the village to the condition of Oracle.”
As we saw earlier, the central motto of Right populism in Europe is anti-immigration – a barely disguised variation of hate towards The Other. In Brazil the main theme, emphasized by Bolsonaro, is urban insecurity. He could be the Brazilian Rodrigo Duterte – or Duterte Harry: “Make my day, punk.”
He portrays himself as the Righteous Defender against a corrupt elite (even though he’s part of the elite); and his hatred of all things politically correct, feminism, homosexuality, multiculturalism – are all unpardonable offenses to his “family values.”
A Brazilian historian says the only way to oppose him is to “translate” to each sector of Brazilian society how Bolsonaro’s positions affect them: on “widespread weaponizing, discrimination, jobs, (and) taxes.” And it has to be done in less than three weeks.
Arguably the best book explaining the failure of the Left everywhere to deal with this toxic situation is Jean-Claude Michea’s Le Loup dans la Bergerie – The Wolf Among the Sheep – published in France a few days ago.
Michea shows concisely how the deep contradictions of liberalism since the 18th century – political, economic and cultural – led it to TURN AGAINST ITSELF and be cut off from the initial spirit of tolerance (Adam Smith, David Hume, Montesquieu). That’s why we are deep inside post-democratic capitalism.
Euphemistically called “the international community” by Western mainstream media, the elites, who have been confronted since 2008 with “the growing difficulties faced by the process of globalized accumulation of capital,” now seem ready to do anything to keep its privileges.
Michea is right that the most dangerous enemy of civilization – and even Life on Earth – is the blind dynamics of endless accumulation of capital. We know where this neoliberal Brave New World is taking us.
The only counterpunch is an autonomous, popular movement “that would not be submitted to the ideological and cultural hegemony of ‘progressive’ movements that for over three decades defend only the cultural interests of the new middle classes around the world,” Michae says.
For now, such a movement rests in the realm of Utopia. What’s left is to try to remedy a coming dystopia – such as backing a real Progressive Democratic Front to block a Bolsonaro Brazil.
One of the highlights of my Italian sojourn was a meeting with Rolf Petri, Professor of Contemporary History at the Ca Foscari University in Venice, and author of the absolutely essential A Short History of Western Ideology: A Critical Account.
Ranging from religion, race and colonialism, to the Enlightenment project of “civilization”, Petri weaves a devastating tapestry of how “the imagined geography of a ‘continent’ that was not even a continent offered a platform for the affirmation of European superiority and the civilizing mission of Europe.”
During a long dinner in a small Venetian trattoria away from the galloping selfie hordes, Petri observed how Salvini – a middle-class small entrepreneur – craftily found out how to channel a deep unconscious longing for a mythical harmonious Europe that won’t be coming back, much as petty bourgeois Bolsonaro evokes a mythical return to the “Brazilian miracle” during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship.
Every sentient being knows that the U.S. has been plunged into extreme inequality “supervised” by a ruthless plutocracy. U.S. workers will continue to be royally screwed as are French workers under “liberal” Macron. So would Brazilian workers under Bolsonaro. To borrow then from Yeats, what rough beast, in this darkest hour, slouches towards freedom to be born?
Pepe Escobar, a veteran Brazilian journalist, is the correspondent-at-large for Hong Kong-based Asia Times. His latest book is 2030. Follow him on Facebook.
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Let get things done.
Otherwise this country which could be a large Italy or France in f20 years will turn into a big big Bangladesh or giant Congo, with all due respect for these two
victim countries.
Brazil has everything and everyone it needs to develop and diversify its economy, but too many people here, especially Bolsonaro’s most vociferous supporters, are simply not interested. That said, the PT had a chance to do a better job of diversifying Brazil’s manufacturing economy during the China driven commodity boom years, but they blew it too.
As long as Brazil’s garchs (and their pets Bolsonaro and Rede Globo) insist on keeping Brazilians locked into its inert, commodities based economy, “getting things done” will never happen here, no matter what dishonest journalists and easily hacked voting machines say.
And here’s one of my own predictions: Bolsonaro will have to defend Brazil’s heavy import tariffs from verbal and possibly financial attacks from his natural ally in Washington D.C. as early as next month.
In the philosophical and spiritual realm, racism, fascism and similar ideologies are based on hatred, in reality is is also partly selfhatred which been projecting on others. All those neo-fascist parties of Europe and America propagate hatred.
European hatred of color people did lead to the colonialism and murder of up to one billion people in the past 500 Years. The only exception is Russia, which did not participate in these global slaughter of humanity.
Now the central theme of Western and European hatred is Islam. They even plotted to cook up the biggest lie of the 21 century, the false flag of 911 to blame poor muslim nations.
They directed the biggest propaganda machine of planet to demonize islam and muslims. They created ISIS to divide and destroyed image of islam.
But Islam is not some poor idiots, or some missguided CIA jihadists. The real islam is the puré way of life.
In the court of universe, the European and western Will be guilty of lies, plots, deception and hateful conduct and murder of up to one billion innocent people of colored skin.
The war against a supernatural and spiritual way of life is a lost war.
Darius, colonialism had nothing to do with racial hatred. Racism was used to make it justifiably easier. Otherwise, it was/is about enrichment.
True! And enrichment had everything to do with Ego and Domination…..and relatively greater “survival” faced with very real competitors in the same scramble for material “success”..
But while indulging the Ego and dominating weaker members of the human species, the stronger ones do like to feel justified in their actions, and see themselves as embodying The Good….and Truth.
The White Man’s Burden Rudyard Kipling 1899
TAKE up the White Man’s burden –
Send forth the best ye breed –
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild –
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man’s burden –
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain.
Take up the White Man’s burden –
The savage wars of peace –
Fill full the mouth of famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man’s burden –
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper –
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead !
Take up the White Man’s burden –
And reap his old reward,
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard –
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah slowly !) towards the light:-
“Why brought ye us from bondage,
“Our loved Egyptian night ?”
Take up the White Man’s burden –
Ye dare not stoop to less –
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods and you.
Take up the White Man’s burden –
Have done with childish days –
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgement of your peers.
This is not a simple imperialist poem. Kipling chides worse imperialists than himself. The ironies abound. And yet Kipling of the famous “Oh East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” may be proven wrong within our lifetimes and many a muddled mess besides just Brazil may yet benefit from increased connectivity and universality, overcoming the dread and confused shackles of ego and particularism, iand the ideological flaws and debilitating contradictions all across the spectrums of the old political and social paradigms..
Great comment Bro93…
I agree with Anonius about leveraging racism for pillage and plunder, and we can also see how it cuts both ways in the US’ identity politics, which encourages “diverse” groups of people to feel like they are part of the gang — pun intended. Supporting my assertion are the millions of “diverse” and cynical voters in the US’ Democratic Party who are A-OK with waging unwinnable, perpetual, unprovoked and offensive wars, and the routine Zersetzung torture and blacklisting of dissidents in broad daylight, right under their noses. (Many of those who attacked me include a “diverse” group of weak Mexican, Brazilian, Chinese, Indian, and Israeli rent-a-patriots, not just weak Caucasians.)
And across the Empire’s political spectrum, I find the same evils enabled by the less secular. Too often, when I want to talk meat and potatoes, my nickname for war & peace, geo-politics, geo-strategy, economic and educational issues, and other temporal, secular matters, American (and Brazilian vassal) spirit-bots often respond with the equivalent of “whatever, just pray”.
The time it took to post this is a bit of a relapse. I try not to give a damn about the willfully oblivious because I have been stalked, harassed and tortured by US goons and their rentals in various countries for many years. If others want to be part of the group, no matter how evil, and swirl down the drain with their precious identity groups and imaginary friends, I don’t mind.
Stan:
In thinking about racism and impoerialism, it should be borne in mind that the “first” British colony was Ireland, where the natives were consdiered to be primitives.
The same attitude toward the Irish prevailed when millions of starving arrived in the USA starting in I believe ca. 1865.
Thanks for taking the time to post.
I think people here read contributions seriously.
I like “meat and potatoes” for the big issues—in my own shorthand: “War and peace.”
As in: Doesn’t anyone think any more about war and peace?
The Big Ones?
Where are the street protests against undeclared military and CIA engagements and mayhem across the globe?
This dangerous mess did not start with Trump.
Trump just rips the veil aside.
Katherine
Hi Katherine,
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Yes, Trump is the snarling face of old and nasty rot in the US. I just call (R) and (D) “The Party”. The two factions agree on policies related to the most important issues, and bicker about who scarfs the most private perks.
And your point about chauvinistic English opinion about Irish natives “considered to be primitives” is one I agree with. It is still true among many English (and Scots & Irish). I lived in London for almost three years and got an earful about the hated Other in ways which reminded me of the sort of people I had to live among during my first twenty seven years of life in Texas. And I hear the same kind of crap here in Brazil, a country just as divided as the US.
Here is a relevant anecdote that might make you chuckle… I was visiting Texas in mid Nov. 2008, entertaining the stupid notion that I should pop in on at least one member of my hard right wing, racist family to see if any of them had come to their senses after I severed relations in 2000. Here is what happened: my brother in law, a Lt. Col. in the USAF, sent me death threats, along with my older brother’s threats, through my Stasi coached mother. For me, this passes for American patriotism, which does not require a smidgen of courage. Right after hearing explicit promises to shoot me in specific circumstances — the Lt. Col. sees me, or I stand on my older brother’s porch — my sister, married to the brave Lt. Col., completely lost control of herself. After screaming “Terrorist! Traitor! Coward! You ran away!” in a Stasi rat infested diner in Georgetown, TX, she blubbered, “I love my country! … I only care about the people who live inside my four walls and the roof!” Pretty funny stuff, nationalism, especially when mixed with the spiritual.
That may give you a hint about how intimately familiar I am with racists — they raised me. But in the US, and among many I know here in Brazil, most who considered themselves to be liberal minded remain allied with the most hateful racists in terms of the same “meat and potatoes” issues that affect almost every place and time in history.
I’m echoing you, sorry for the tedious repetition.
I love the little nuggets I learn from a Pepe piece.
For example, polls before the first round of voting showed the pro-dictatorship candidate ahead, but with only 30-35% of the vote. Then, on election day, came the surprise that he was trying to win on the first round, urging his supporters to vote him to a first round victory, and that he was surprising close to doing so with first reports of around 48% of the vote.
Pepe’s little nugget was that 20% of the first round votes were not counted and declared “null and void”. That’s almost as many votes as Haddad received with his 29%. And, quite magically, the numbers say that it was people who voted against dictatorship and the new neo-fascist candidate who had their votes thrown out, as the pro-dictatorship candidate suddenly made huge jump in percentage terms far above his pre-election polling. The candidate polling in the mid 30 percent range magically almost wins the election in a surprise upset in the first round.
Meanwhile, the pro-dictatorship faction has already declared one second round vote to be null-and-void.
“Brazilian Supporter of Haddad Assassinated After Voting” https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Brazilian-Supporter-of-Haddad-Assassinated-After-Voting-20181008-0016.html
The empire wants this election so they can have their war against democracy in Venezuela. The empire is counting on a Brazilian front in the planned attack on the people of Venezuela who dare to declare that the oil under their land belongs to them and not the empire.
The key question for the left his how to organize despite massive infiltration of under-covers and informants who’ve infiltrated the left since the days of the fear of communists. Any time a leftist movement starts to organize, these infiltrators suddenly start to tear the movement apart from the inside, or force the movement to take silly positions that will only lose them votes in the future (aka Identity Politics, etc).
And of course there’s the fact that every human being in the western world is constantly bombarded with propaganda about how wonderful the right wing is (see coverage of Bolosaro) and how horrible it will be if anyone dares to oppose the right because the world is doomed if they don’t immediately vote in the candidate of the banksters.
Thus, the left is left with divided movements that seem to fight with themselves and take positions that the mainstream won’t accept, with the rightwing media extensively covering both the internal fights and the sure-loser positions all caused by the same agent provocateurs working for the same masters as the media who are also employing those on the right to blame everything on anyone who’s different or from someplace else or the old standby “communists”.
Indeed, this comes to mind: https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/btw-brazil-tinder-undercover-police/
Fox news stations are reporting that UN Amb Nutti Nikkki Haley is resigning her post.
There have been strange rumors for months that this unpopular lady will attempt to become the next President. If so, this timing would fit those ambitions, as the midterm congressional fake-elections usually mark the beginning of the next Presidential fake-election campaigns.
Haley was generally well-regarded as South Carolina governor. But after seeing her at the UN, most think of her an idiot. Or just a tool. If she runs, it will be against about another 6 to 10 GOP candidates and will have not shot.
I think she cashes in as a lobbyist instead. She did her job, as stupid as that job was. Mission Accomplished.
A Sarah Palin-like Presidential Exploratory committee would a) make her some money. And b) help her get one of the better lobbying/think tank jobs.
There will likely be a book deal along the way soon. That way all the big weapons companies and buy copies and give them to their employees. Newt Gingrinch and Barack Obama have both shown how grateful lobbyist can use such book purchases to send large sums of money to reward their servants.
While there are some similarities between events in the Eu and Brazil, it has nothing to do with the person of Steve Bannon. Here are Marine Le Pen and Matheo Salvini publicly distancing themselves from Bannon: http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/le-scan/2018/10/08/25001-20181008ARTFIG00163-marine-le-pen-prend-ses-distances-avec-steve-bannon.php
In Europe and Brazil it’s been a three-stage tragedy: First, the democratic wishes of the people are brushed aside (referendums that reject various Eu treaties are ignored/ democratically elected Dilma Rousseff is deposed), Second, an unpopular and incompetent government takes control (Juncker/ Temer) and now the backlash hits us with extremist and authoritarian groups.
I am not sure what solutions exist, but what I do know is that it is going to take more than a rambling trotskyist in fawning love with the British monarchy, Slavoj Zizek, (pass the barf bag) to come up with an answer.
Hopefully, Haddad will be able to muster the resources and snatch a last minute victory….Nikki Haley has just resigned so maybe the tide is turning! Good luck to Brazil!
I think Steve Bannon is setting himself up as the erstwhile ‘Kingmaker’ based on his success with Trump. Thing is, he wants to make Kings in his image.
He needs a shampoo, shave, and haircut.
Katherine
Great post!
Ditto great post :-). Nikki Haley will just be replaced with a double down “torture Haspel” or the like.
Heading toward more chaos, violence and hunger games everywhere.
Looking at the first round of the elections in Brazil, those two guys are moving to the next round. Judging by the percentiges, it’s not done deal, just yet.
Cassad has the results:
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/4507359.html
Pepe overlooks the spiritual roots of Latin American problems. The Vatican has a stranglehold on the political and economic sphere. Brazil was a far right dictatorship for many years- Bolsonaro would not be adding anything different if he took power, merely returning Brazil to its natural Roman Catholic (clerical fascist) orientation. This was formerly a rival and enemy of Anglo Saxon Protestantism and Zionist, yet now all three are allies against the sovereigntist progressive nationalists like Putin, Chavez and Assad.
Lula’s and Chavez’s success was the exception rather than the rule of Latin American history. All the Roman Catholic countries from Poland to Portugal and Chile to Austria have the same tendencies and cultural mores. They will continue spawning Pinochet’s, Salazar’s,
Well before going into that line is important to understand two main elements
1)Catholicism has never ever been an homogeneous force since the XIII century onwards, sure there are main tenets but there are clear differences among the church tjat are based on differences among the nations. The same way nations are influenced by the citizens who practice a religion, religion is influenced by the nations who practice it. Although France has historically been the most influential nation of the catholic world, shaping its mild laic and state-oriented approach, is important to remember that Spain/Portugal developed a path of its own as result of the reconquista. This Civil War of 800 years in the peninsula shaped a catholic spirt far more mystical, where the saints and virgin’s figures were far more close to the old pagan Gods and where the sanctity was born from deep conexion to the world and evangelic proselitism rather from monastic and ascetic live style. When this particular form of view was transferred to the Americas it took shape as a even more material view where the faith was only a path to build a paradise, which was to be seen in the Americas. As the centuries moved on this took the Form of a new Theology: Liberation Theology; where the catholicism was downed to the ground to the point of becoming simultaneously political guide, nature and social mysticism and folclore faith. In that sense that particular form of faith made a path totally to the left, against the European catholicism. Let’s not forget that most central American guerrillas and Colombian guerrillas although socialist never declared themselves Marxists but rather Catholic!!! The FFMLN in El Salvador, the FSLN in Nicaragua, the ELN in Colombia and Chávez, Ortega and current pope Francis were and are part of this tendency.
2) Again popular belief Latin America has a far longer history of laicism than Europe or Middle East. From the initial separation of church and State in all the 5 countries liberated by Bolivar to the proclamation of separation of church and State by Benito Juarez to the laic education of Sarmiento the power of thr church has been out of the state for more or less 150 years. And in certain critical points the search of the State to obliterate the church by seizing churches, Calles in 1930’s, promoting mass atheism, Cuba from 1960 to 1980, or by promoting hard laicism in the state practices, Peron in Argentina.
Brasil is the clear exception here, they only broken partially with the church in 1980’s after the fall of the dictatorship and even now6 they are a far mire Christian state than Colombia or Mexico, let alone Argentina or Cuba. But to say that Pinochet or Videla were catholic when both dictatorships promoted free market neoliberalism and nihilist way of life (yeah ironic coming from a dictatorship) is just a lack of understanding, even more so when the latinoamerican shape of the catholic church lies deep into the left.
Interesting.
A small point that may have some relevance.
A lot of Brazilians have emigrated to my hometown. There is a sizable Braz. communityt here now, and it is growing. The travel back and forth to Brazil, but they are firmly settled. Are starting businesses, buying houses, have their own section f the newspaper.
A great many of these Brazilians are evangelicals.
Katherine
@Katherine,
Brazilian evangelicals are living close to you? I feel very sorry for you. But it also means there are less evangelicals here in Brazil, good news for myself.
Bolivar did not “liberate” sh¡t. You have been brainwashed. The despicable Bolivar and the rest of his gang were Freemasons prepared and supported by the British crown and the usual zios at the City of London to wage war against the Spanish Empire in America, with the aim to divide it and then loot the defenseless banana Republics that resulted from the ziocoup. It has been an endless piñata for the last 200 years.
And secondly, it has been proved that the real organizers and profiteers of slavery, were the Khazarians. The Spanish Empire was mild compared to what the zioAnglos did in America, that is, almost total extermination of the indigenous population.
@Latinoamericano
Between the catholic-wahhabbies of the Spanish empire and their bastard children the Franquistas and the pro-anglosaxon masons of Bolívar and San Martín I prefer the second ones as they at least do not consider raping to be forgivable while homosexuality.
Being antimperialist doesn’t mean to be antimodern. Greeting from a Latino Commie
Wasn’t the colonization of Anglo-Saxon America the result (and the motivation) of the pirate Empire’s fight against Catholic Spain and her civilizing endeavors in America since the ‘glorious reign’ of the harpie Elizabeth the ‘Virgin Queen’?
The economic/social/political situation here in Brazil is very complex. We lived in a right-wing military regime that lasted 21 years (1964-1985). Then, in the first open election for the presidency (1989) we had Lula, a left-wing syndicalist from the Worker’s Party, against Collor, a fake candidate promoted by the elites to implement a neoliberal agenda. Collor won, after much manipulation by the mainstream media against Lula, but was impeached in 1992 under accusations of corruption. In the next election, 1994, Lula was the favorite candidate, but the elites invented another neoliberal fake candidate, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), who won that election and the next one, in 1998. Finally, after a disastrous second term by FHC, with Brazil broken by the usual neoliberal policies and with poor people dying of hunger, Lula was elected in 2002. Lula was a very moderate left-wing president, making many concessions for the Brazilian elite, but was able to recover the economy, the jobs and implement many important social programs for the poor. Lula also had huge success internationally, being a key actor in the creation of BRICS. After serving two terms, Lula elected his successor, Dilma Rousseff, in 2010 and again in 2014. The elite always wanted Lula and the Worker’s Party out, but couldn’t succeed due to Lula’s immense popularity and also because Brazilians hate the neoliberal agenda.
After Rousseff’s second election, and surfing on the wave of dissatisfaction due to a scenario of economic crisis, the right wing impeached Rousseff in 2016 under some very hollow accusations and the presidency was assumed by her vice, the very unpopular Michel Temer, who immediately started implementing a right-wing neoliberal agenda of austerity and destruction of worker’s rights. At the same time, knowing that Lula would probably be reelected in 2018, they started a very aggressive campaign against him, orchestrated by the judiciary, media and other right-wing sectors, until Lula was finally imprisoned in April/2018, under fabricated charges of corruption.
But there’s a problem for the elite: the majority of the Brazilian people hate the neoliberal agenda. So, to be able to elect a candidate that can implement the neoliberal policies, they had to resort to Bolsonaro, who was nothing more than a clownish parliamentary just a few months ago. Bolsonaro’s relative popularity is due to his appeal to some conservative agendas in terms of behavior (since most Brazilians prefer progressive agendas in economy, but are very conservative in terms of behavior/mores) and to his supposed hard-line stance against crime and corruption. He’s also riding on a wave of rejection against Lula and the Worker’s Party that is a consequence of many years of a non-stop smearing campaign by the the Brazilian MSM.
Bolsonaro has many fascist followers, and espouses many fascist points of view, but in the end he’s just another fake candidate in the line that started with Collor in 1989, a man that has some popularity due to secondary agendas while hiding the truly important one: full-blown neoliberalism. The question now for the Brazilian left-wing is if we can debunk him in just 3 weeks before the final voting round (October 28) and elect Haddad, the Worker’s Party candidate endorsed by Lula from his prison cell.
Is the raison d’etre of the state to serve humanity or crush humanity to serve the state?
We currently live in a democratic socialist state for the 1% and a capitalist authoritarian state for the 99% where the individual exists to serve the state.
A state can have differentiation on 2 axis: socialism/capitalism and authoritarian/libertarian. So is the machine/ state going to crush humanity or is the state going to serve humanity?
The basic problem with any ideology is that it just winds up becoming sanctimonious, self-serving, sociopathic BS.
The dumbasses who hold high places must be the ones who start to mold a new reality closer to the heart…
https://youtu.be/0oem46aJgUg
Congrats Pepe, I’ve reading your articles for 15 years.
Pepe sounds just like the left in the US: “Democracy is over. The sky is falling!”
I’m aware this is an unpopular perspective here, but perhaps it will offer a little food for thought. Why the popularity of Bolsonaro? Those who voted for him are deplorables? Or is it, as Pepe says, he appeals to “urban insecurity”?
Brazilians are far beyond sick of all the murders, crime, and corruption. The country is falling apart in practically every dimension. Calling it “urban insecurity” is at least disingenuous and perhaps cynical.
The economy has been headed straight down the drain for too many years. Living in Brazil is a little like living in a prison. You need security guards just to stay alive. The fear of being robbed, common some years ago, has morphed directly into fear of being murdered. Robbers now frequently kill their victims, just for good measure.
And Lula. How is it that he, his son, and family became famously wealthy with huge land holdings? Yes, the ignorant poor support him even as he robbed the country. The few bones he threw their way hardly begin to compensate for the harm done.
Pepe also seems to have no sense of irony in calling Bolsonaro’s running mate “barely literate”. Lula himself admits to being practically illiterate: “Tem gente que acha que sou analfabeto. Eu sou quase.”
Bolsonaro may well turn out to be a bad choice for Brazil. Most countries do not benefit from extremes. But Lula and Dilma poisoned the well for left leaning candidates, and perhaps even moderates.
Pepe’s income comes from abroad. It seems he is out of touch with the reality on the ground in his own country where people are suffering. The Bolsonaro surge is not a fluke, fake, or mass hypnosis. It is a reaction to economic misery and genuine fear for the future of the country.
It seems that “Bolsominions” will start attacking Pepe and the Saker, like they do with progressists and even moderates here in Brazil. They act like a digital militia, often resorting to distorted info and lies to impose their worldview. Be very careful with then, Saker!
P.S.: I’m a Brazilian, living in Brazil, and I fully agree with Pepe’s position.
No worries, my friend, they can attack me or Pepe to their heart’s content. Frankly, both of us are used to it.
Kind regards
The Saker
In the old days, back before the internet when organizing was done face to face, the bosses had a technique of sending in thugs to break up the meetings the workers were having. If possible, they’d try to start arguments betwen people which they would then escalate. When there was too much unity amongst the workers for that to work, they would just come in swinging. Either way, the resulting fight broke up the worker’s meeting. At least until the workers got smart and knew to go to Bob’s house after the meeting was broken up so they could continue to talk and organize in his backyard.
Concordo com você.
Digo mais:
A eleição do Bolsonaro é a resposta da Classe Média ao politicamente correto importado e enfiado goela abaixo da sociedade.
A começar com Fernando Henrique Cardoso que desarmou a população.
Depois veio o Estatuto do Menor e do Adolescente que acabou com a disciplina nas escolas, protege menores de idade assassinos.
A Lei Maria da Penha não era necessária, somente a aplicação do Direito Penal e criação de Delegacias da Mulher especializadas já seriam suficiente.
Há muitos outros exemplos do politicamente correto que entraram na sociedade e, nunca fizeram parte de nossa cultura heterogênea.
Não sei como esse texto será visto por vocês, utilizo o Google Chrome e tradutor portanto, leio a tradução do que vocês escrevem e, nessa caixa de texto, escrevo em português.
Grato.
the collapse of the left parties..what is that some kind of disaster for the people?
I don’t think so
the left parties usually have nothing democratic to offer save a dictatorship from the supposed left, replete with bureaucracy that stifles the people. the difference between Bolsonaro may be simply one of degree of insanity
if Bolsonaro is as capable as Franco was we are in for a long period of atrocity in Brazil..or a massive Brazilian uprising
I’m a Brazilian and I can attest that the left here is not like you painted it. During the 13 years they were in power, we had full democracy, economic development and the living standards were raised, altought not as much as they could. In fact, the main criticism I have for the Brazilian left is that they are too moderate!
All Bolsonaro has to offer is his clownish acting, some tough talking and full-blown neoliberalism (the majority of brazilians hate neoliberalism, but many are not aware that what Bolsonaro has to offer is hardcore, authoritarian neoliberalism).
Reality is frequently very different from what’s presented on corporate owned, right-leaning media.
Querido DC, you may well be Brazilian and not have the slightest clue about the country…
It’s like saying that just because you live in Germany you will learn German, by way of osmosis. Not going to happen.
That said…
The fact that Bolsonaro has garnered 46% of votes and is quite likely to win the 2nd round also (barring massive electronic interference) is the result of pure logic, helped by sheer luck.
LOGIC – because Brazilians have never been as sick and tired of their obviously corrupt political class spanning from centre-bourgeois (PMDB, PSDB etc.) to the left (mainly PT). And yes, they had some few good years under Lula, owing to a global commodities boom and the monetary stability planted by FHC in the 90ies. When this was gone, things went downhill. Brazilians remember the years under Dilma as a nightmare (which hasn’t stopped under Temer, of course). So, what’s left? What’s the alternative? Haddad, who makes virtual pilgramages to his inmate PT hero Lula? Brazilians are in fact fed up enough to prefer some nutcase who talks tough. And yes, some Brazilians still remember fondly the relative quiet & stability under the military dictatorship (whose last 10 years under Geisel and Figueiredo were by the way far less bloody than its Chilean counterpart). And most were born afterwards anyway.
So the logic is that – desire of a strongman who appears clean and who as never in power. Better a completely unknown than the known PT/PSDB/PMDB etc. malaise.
LUCK – because Bolsonaro was virtually taken out by the unsuccessful stabbing which prevented him to campaign till the first round vote. He was lucky to survive, but also to get some media coverage without spreading his uncough message. Nothing better could have happened to him.
Brazilians are in a tough spot, really. It’s a shame what is happening. And yet, it reminds me of the old saying that every people has the government they deserve. Everyday Brazilians may complain about their politicians but they have been swallowing every and any pill without hesitation. And they mimick their corruption in their daily lives to a tee. And no revolution whatsoever, ever.
@Non-brazilian,
Thank you for saying I’m totally ignorant about my own country, the country I love deeply, where I was born and where I’ll die, no matter what happens. I forgot that today the Bolsonaro crazies are the only “patriotas”, tough they actually hate the country and half of it’s people. Some of the extremists are already attacking their oponnents in the street. A brazilian “capoeirista” was killed with 12 knife stabs by a bolsonarista just because he declared that he voted for Haddad.
Also, thank you for saying we brazilians are just a bunch of corrupt people who deserve they fate.
Honestly, It saddens me a lot to know that even The Saker blog, a place of overall sanity, isn’t immune to people like you.
Pardon me, DC, if my words have insulted you. That was not the intention.
What I need to say, however, is that 1. many Brazilians (as many others..) simply have no fricken clue about what is going on in their country, and much less the historic “pano de fundo” underlying it. There they are right on the same page as almost anybody else. I would even guess that the compatriate (be it Brazilian, German, Australian) has probably the more opaque view on things local.
2. and, yes, I noted during my years in Brazil that Brazilians tend to think of themselves in overly rosy terms – “we are the ultimate friendly people”, “we are basically non-violent”, “there is hardly any country more worth living in than Brazil” etc etc. That may sound as obvious nonsense nowadays, but then (late 90ies), in the relative stability of the FHC years, many did believe that!
And yet any historian knew about the violence which underpins Brazil’s society today: the post colonial structure of society, the crass distribution of income and wealth, the hidden yet obvious raciscm, the heritage of slavery etc. etc.
3. and, yes, I also love the country, but that alone doesn’t mean I know it.
@Non-brazilian,
Now you sound way more reasonable. You’re right, most brazilians are clueless about the true political situation in Brazil. That’s why so many are voting for Bolsonaro now, they really don’t know the true face of the man. A couple of months ago he had only around 20% of the votes in the polls, but in the last weeks a strange herd mentality took place here in Brazil, fueled by many lies and scary tactics against his main oponnent.
By the way, you showed quite some knowledge about the structural problems of Brazilian society, so congratulations on that.
if a left in power somewhere is half decent it does resolve their basic contradiction that is bound to lead to a confrontation with the peoples interest in time
the left parties and he national bureaucracy with which they are in tandem must ensure their continuation which depends on the exploitation of the people same as the capitalists/capitalism. both do not produce the wealth that feeds them and must tax it away from the people
s no matter how decent they are they are face with a choice: depend their ‘democracy’ into socialism, into real popular social control, creating governing formations that make it possible for full participation of the people in their social process from decisive angle?
will the left party go all the way into cooperative ownership of business and production on the principle that all who work in anything must actually own it, to make all things advanced and advancing about business possible, rather than particularized thing decide by owners..a social minority in control of the most important activity of the nation?
that’s right! will the socialist party allow for the evolution of the society into the elimination of the owner worker contradiction which is the basis of all social problems?
but if they do they remove the basis and social need for their own party. they must dissolve themselves and go with the people into democracy..popular democracy that eliminates the basis for all minority social control which is what any political party represents due to the fact that they cannot feed themselves and depend on taxes to pay their way?
by that fact all political parties are ultimately a check on the peoples interest no matter how half decent they have been up to that point.
I speak of left parties as i do because they have betrayed the people literally in every nation. i know Lula and Dilma were half decent…but there-in their failure lay. what did they expect the reaction of Washington to to be?
incredible! Washington had only been overthrowing such regimes for a century all over the place especially in its own ‘backyard’ ..Latin America. so Lula and Dilma in accepting what they would be up against if they followed their polices should have made preparations to stop the Amricans from overthrowing them, jailing not assassinating them
why did they now build up an alternate culture as first priority to deal with oligarchic attack, why did they not neuter every possible centre from which attack could in Brasil itself…
well to my way of thinking Lula/Dilma did no behave that way because they are merely decent politicians so far, and not deeply committed to any ideological principle consistent with what their policies implied. but you are not going to defeat the empire without and ideology. the situation is complex but total and you must have a way of think that addresses the totality from any angle or tangent or you will fail
@Ben,
With all due respect, your reply seems a little confuse to me. But there’s a point I fully agree with: Lula and Dilma should have taken precautions to avoid the coup against then. There’s even a rumour that Putin himself alerted Dilma that the americans where planning to overthrow her, but she did very little to avoid It.
There was nothing they could do about it.
Dilma had proven to be such an unbearable bitch that Temer, one of the most hated, most opportunistic, least principled guys in Brasília, had no problems getting the necessary Congress majorities for her impeachment.
Lula is cited as regretting profoundly to have chosen her as a successor. No political talent whatsoever.
Everybody hated working with her. She must have been a true pain in the behind.
So, both Lula and Dilma had botched the whole thing in a major league way.
And yes, I fully agree that the charges against Dilma were ridiculous, especially when coming from guys like Temer or Aécio.
Yes, Dilma wasn’t prepared for the job, but please don’t call her a bitch, it sounds exactly like the right-wing nuts here in Brazil.
There was something Lula could have done to avoid the coup: he should have run for president in the 2014 elections. But, for reasons I don’t know, he let Dilma be reelected and then all hell broke loose. In 2013, there were already strong signs that the right-wing would sabotage her government.
This campaign had a massive wave of fake news and facebook posts. Finally, at the very end, a court ordered Facebook to remove one small portion of it as it was such obvious fakes.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Brazil-TSE-Orders-Facebook-To-Remove-Fake-News-Smearing-PT-20181005-0014.html
Facebook of course let all of it through their censors until a judge finally ordered them to remove it.
Facebook was far less relevant this time around. Bolsonaro is on WhatsApp.
Well, if Bannon is advising Bolsonaro – then he is Israel’s choice – terrible news –
Also – as if there isn’t voting fraud and criminal counting etc – if they can throw Lula in jail without evidence – then they can make the vote 49 million – even though Lula wins all the polls – and his second in command only gets 29 million.
Poor Brazil – the country is so rich in resources and the forests and the orangutans are at the end of their species.
Even if finally mankind wins through this horrible time – that is controlled by men in grey suits – all the glory of nature will be gone. It will just be humans left.
from the Delphi Initiative –
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/brazil-the-far-right-was-able-to-capitalize-on-social-dissatisfaction-brutal-repression-and-civil-war-will-follow-if-they-win-the-second-round-all-latin-america-in-grave-danger/
Ann, you’re right, Bolsonaro is supported by Israel. Some of his followers even appear with the israeli flag at public events.
Bolsonaro is the wannabe Brazilian Poroshenko. He would totally rape and destroy Brazil to benefit his US/Zionist masters, while using fake “nationalist” rhetoric to maintain power. Hopefully Brazilian voters can defeat him in the second round. And hopefully Brazil can stop the spread of the sickening Zionist-Evangelical plague that is infesting the country.
Nate, I’m a Brazilian and I totally agree with you!
I don’t understand the comparaison between Bolsonaro, and leaders of populist movements in Europe.
Fist because Le Pen, Salvini, Orban as true sovereignist leader and don’t want to be manipulated by Bannon: : http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/le-scan/2018/10/08/25001-20181008ARTFIG00163-marine-le-pen-prend-ses-distances-avec-steve-bannon.php.
Second because , in Europe the real puppets in the hands of Washington, are people who are in power in France, Spain, GB, Germany…and of course in European Union..
As french, i support every nationalist party who want to break this situation and have a true sovereignist agenda, with the will to keep distance with the USA (despite Bannon Movement) and to support closer ties with Russia.
If people in Europe in Europe are boring about immigration, it’s not because we hate others, it’s just a survival instinct…Escobar, should come to see how is the situation in some places in France “Seine saint Denis” or in Marseilles ou in Swedish town Malmoe, or in London, …everywhere in wertern union…Uncontrolled immigration is a weapon manipulated buy globalist leaders to destroy people, to destroy identity, to destroy culture…in the aim to impose an globalist agenda and a world government.
Exactly! anonymous.
I’m an immigrant living in Sweden, and the ONLY party worth voting for is Sverigedemokraterna, the nationalist party. They don’t hate immigrants, they merely want immigration controlled, with certain minimum requirements for those arriving to meet and fit with Swedish society. Pretty simple, really
Except that Sweden’s pseudo-Stasi, neo-fascist media tell a completely different story. They are all minions to the globalist agenda (two party leaders recently revealed to be associate members of the Trilateral Commission, no less), and demonize any and all efforts of ordinary Swedes to protect their cultural heritage. It’s shameful, and jaw-droppingly insane.
And it’s also a part of the Kalergi Plan, originating in 1925 – yes, you read that correctly: nearly 100 years ago… to race replace ethnic Europeans with a mix of Africans and Middle Easterners who would be easier to control.
And people have seen through it. It’s not race hate, as Pepe suggests: it’s unbridled anger at the continuing lies and denial from a political class which absolutley and utterly refuses to address people’s concerns. That, and that alone, is why Bannon and any of the so-called right wing parties of Europe are winning across the whole of Europe. We expect our governments to represent our needs and wishes. When they instead represent the wishes of faceless oligarchs and corporations it doesn’t take Einstein to figure out that there will be a nasty reaction, a reaction that will get nastier the longer the politicians refuse to represent the people’s will.
Surely events in Brazil have been obvious since Lula & Rousseff. What’s a surprise is that this current event has come as a surprise….to some various ‘left wing’ folks. So sorry, must open the mind to observe the actual rather than the wish in order to pay attention before we all devolve into chaos….oh….you mean….chaos has been here all along?
Pepe is out of touch, clearly and painfully so. The Left has become the Anti-White party, the party of oppression to COMMON SENSE, plus the sponsor of the assault on Men.
As a man, not even a WHITE MAN since I am a so called multi-cultural liberal caribbean guy, I am appalled by the excesses that I am watching everyday from the Democratic party.
I am sickened by the sniveling, weasel, surrender monkeys that exist in Europe.
I think people just want their borders, their flag, their streets to be clean, no hardcore porn to be labeled as art and pushed in your face in the name of tolerance. No more massive migration that pushes down wages.
Just let’s take a breath and bring back some old fashioned values for a bit before shoving same sex marriage and transgenderism down our throats.
Respect the Bible Belt Pepe and they might respect you. Show some tolerance!
Curiously all of that only happens inside territory under the control of the very same ‘white men'(including non-Western countries under Western hegemony here), why do you think that is?
the central motto of Right populism in Europe is anti-immigration – a barely disguised variation of hate towards The Other
Europeans have discovered that mass immigration is making their countries worse places to live. Being reasonably intelligent, they are turning to political parties which will end mass immigration and make their countries better places to live. You call that hatred of the other. We call it love of our own.
Would have made much more sense if NATO bombings and Western orchestrated ‘regime change'(plus European leaders inviting the immigrants in the first place), didn’t happen.
It is an interesting article from someone who knows Brasil from the inside.
However, allow me to correct one apparent error:
Unlike written above, Macron ALSO studyed philosophy.
Wikipedia says:
“(…) Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (French pronunciation: [ɛmanɥɛl makʁɔ̃]; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician serving as President of France since 14 May 2017. He previously was Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs from 2014 to 2016.
Macron was born in Amiens and studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University, completed a Master’s of Public Affairs at Sciences Po and graduated from the École nationale d’administration (ENA) in 2004. He worked as a senior civil servant at the Inspectorate General of Finances and later became an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque.(…)”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Macron
Doesn’t relying on foreign parties to get elected undermine any claims by the candidate of being a nationalist or a ‘sovereignist’?
Thanks to the American Empire’s “regime change” machinations and its penetration of Brazil’s political, legal, and military structures, Brazil is faced with the threat of devolving into a repressive Third World banana republic… I mean …”democracy” that America loves to have as its vassals.
The show trial of Lula and his subsequent imprisonment on contrived “corruption” charges were a thinly disguised form of political repression backed and supported by the Americans.
America knows damn well that if Lula were allowed to run for the presidency, he would win. Hence, the Americans’ covert attempts to bar him from participation in this election.
If Bolsonaro is “elected,” he can be counted to impose more of the USA’s beloved economic “shock therapy” policies like raping social welfare programs and workers’ rights, and of course the privatization of national industry.
What is happening in Brazil reveals the true malign nature of American/Western-style “democracy” in general, which in reality is a disguised form of corporate oligarchy with increasing fascistic tendencies.
Brazil is done my friend. the PT doens’t have a clue of what is going on right now.
Yes, they really don’t know what to do. Bolsonaro will win, brazilians need to be prepared for the dark times that will come
I can not really comment on your insights on Brazil as I am not an inhabitant of it, neither a very active follower of what is going on in Brazil. The only very careful paralel I could maybe draw is with Dutertre in the Philipinnes. Based on what you heard about him in western media (which you should always take with a big grain of salt of not outright lies) you would not understand how people could vote him into office.
I have a well educated and very cheerful, friendly collegue of the Philipinnes who told me he voted for him with all his heart even if ‘he is a bit rough around the edges’. Reaon: crime and corruption is so bad that they need a strongman to clean things up. From the little I read about Brazil (economy collapsing, very high crime) it seems likely to me that the same is going on there. Whether the people will get what they want is another thing.
I do feel a bit more qualified to comment on your assertions on the going ons in the EU. You seem to recognize a lot of the flaws of it (unaccountability, bureaucratic inefficiency, complete lack of democracy) on the one hand, on the other hand you seem to think the ideas of the ‘populist right’ varying from a european union of nation states to an outright end of the EU are even worse and bemoan the lack of a popular left wing alternative?
This is where I am losing you. First off the parties calling themselves left (ie greens and social-democrats) in all european countries are overwhelmingly pro-eu and against a serious reform of it. Just like the ‘center parties’ they completely fail to see all the things wrong with the EU to start with, and even if they by chance see some of them their ‘solution’ is always the same. Grant even more power to the unelected bureacracy who got us in this mess in the first place…
Now I imagine that you are not talking about them but about some other currently not existing left wing alternative. I.e. a ‘true’ left. The question I have for you then is what other solution than the one already mentioned above (ie give even more power to a failed institution) would this party offer? The absurd idea that the EU would work well if only it would be governed by idealistic ‘true left’ people?
I am a libertarian at heart and as such have not voted in years due to lack of any credible political party to my liking. I do not like either the extreme left or the extreme right as both have much more in common with one another than they care to admit. Both have a complete disdain for individualism, see people on the basis of what ‘group’ they belong to rather than as individuals and wish for government to control rather than serve society. Their differences are absolutely minimal to me. One group sees people in terms of wealth or ‘privilege’, another sees people based on nationality, culture or race. That’s it. Other than that for me they are the exact same, very hateful ideologies with a complete lack of respect for the smallest minority of all, the individual.
That being said. I would wish for an end to the EU as soon as possible and I would say I share a lot of the criticisms of the ‘populist right’ about the EU. (and so do you apparently as you see the flaws of it). As I don’t believe these flaws can be corrected it is better the EU disappears completely. If the populist right were to succeed in that goal, I do not believe they will build ‘wonderful societies’ in their individual nations, but at least on paper they could be voted out unlike the EU apparatsjiks.
He is not a nationalist, he hates most Brazilians who are blacks and mixed race, a group more than half of entire Brazilian pop.. He is a fascist pro- USA capital interest in Brazil, possibly has received money and intelligence logistics from Washington in his sophisticated disinformation campaign on Whatsapp and Facebook. With him as a president Brazil is set to disintegrate in the short/medium term, thus making American rule in the region stronger.
“According to Jair Bolsonaro’s own words, he is an advocate of Brazil’s military regime which ran the country between 1965 and 1985. A vote for Bolsonaro is therefore a vote to endorse a slide back towards military rule and what’s more is that Bolsonaro does little to hide his disdain for modern politics, civic democracy and civilian rule. A vote for Bolsonaro is quite frankly a vote against democracy and a vote for a return to the military dictatorships that ruled multiple Latin American nations from the 60s through to the 80s. Bolsonaro knows this, the military knows this, the United States knows this and it seems only the journalists falsely calling Bolsonaro a populist fail to grasp this incredibly overt reality.”
Jair Bolsonaro is Not a Populist – Brazil’s True Populist is Languishing in Prison
https://eurasiafuture.com/2018/10/08/jair-bolsonaro-is-not-a-populist-brazils-true-populist-is-languishing-in-prison/
Also, currently Brazil is chaotic, leaderless, scared and extremely misinformed, thus our people are turning to authoritarianism and fascism. If Bolsonaro is elected, it will be the worse error in the history of Brazil, he will be even more repressive and violent than the generals of the military dictatorship of 1964 and even more of a carpet for the United States. Our military dictatorship at least refused to send soldiers to help the US in Vietnam, Bolsonaro won’t even blink an eye before aiding the US in the future invasion of Venezuela simultaneously fragmenting Brazil into parts. Possibly separatist movements will arise..
Some evangelical priests in Brazil and in the USSA have been CIA agents in disguise. In Brazil, they have been promoted to literally divide the country, and as an added bonus, to blindly reject any socialist or leftist idea (which is instantly demonized as: Marxist atheist b.s.). In the USSA their purpose is to brainwash rednecks to fanatically support Khazaria II (a.k.a. Israhell or Talmudia or Rothschildia).
So if you touch the right strings on those brainwashed masses, your campaign will have a huge boost.
One more detail: “Bible” politicians in Brazil know perfectly that the high echelons of Freemasonry are equivalent to Satanism. And many debates in Brazilian Congress and Senate directly attacked the despicable Freemason Temer.
So that pile of excrement could not remain in power beyond the time that he stole from Dilma in the parliamentary ziocoup.
Dear readers and Pepe
I live in Brazil, in a very poor farming area 2 hours from Rio de Janeiro hub. I also have friends with University courses, nice jobs, etc. Some are PT others simply hate the entire global spectrum of Brazil politicians today.
So, people here in these elections are not voting for candidate’s programs, ideas or projects, they don’t care about ideology, they don’t care if a candidate can or not express their ideas, communicate, etc. Their vote is being mainly based on REJECTION: rejection of any main stream career politician no matter what party, rejection of deep rooted and entrenched corruption from the left to the right. In other words, many people that still care to vote wnet about the best way to deliver one of the biggest BIG F…k you to the national political system. Now, at the second turn, the 20 or so % that abstained, if they decide to vote it will left home out of REJECTION… and according to local polls between Bolsonaro and Haddad, the later has the highest level of rejection (actually it is probably not to Haddad, but the party it represents). Bolsonaro also has rejection but not somuch. Just look what happened to Alkmin, former governor of São Paulo state.
Many wealthy Brazilians are emigrating ‘en masse’ to Portugal out of hopelessness and dismal about the future of the country no matter who win elections, the deep Brazilian collective consciousness really reached a point of total lack of hope that any election will manage to wash away all the accumulated dirt.
So,the key understanding these elections – which are by no means important and I think will decide the future of the country for the next 30-50 years – is the word REJECTION!
Actually, as the majority are black or nearly black (mulatos) and they do not want to be considered black, they adopt the racist position of Bolsonarrow. So, perhaps, racism is winning… The middle class also wants to be seen as rich, not poor, never… so, they would NOT vote for PT because PT defends the poor!!!
Brazil is a country of ignorant and arrogant people who believe they are the best in the world, the most knowledgeable, the most beautiful, the most sexy, the best football players, etc… I am Brazilian and I am ashamed…
Let’s not confound people’s natural protection reactions with “hatred”. If historical movements like the suffragettes, black suffrage, or similar ones that were seeking for equal rights in a society for all members, were necessary, and justified, today’s “feminism”, “lgbt”, “immigrants”, “identity” politics, and similar recent social movements which degenerated in obnoxious, heavily funded, organizations (mostly NGOs) which are not satisfied at all with “equal rights”, but are hell bent on “positive discrimination” of certain minorities – a dictatorship of the minority, in the detriment of the majority. They are used as battering rams to dissolute the fundamentals of society: family, education, culture, and last, but not least faith, of religion. Do we need NGO/state propaganda in kindergartens, primary schools for the “wonderful benefits” of sexual abnormalities? Do we need ” pride parades'” exhibitionism to annoy the vast majority of the society? Do we need “gender” studies, “identity” politics, or other “trendy” subjects in the high schools/universities? Do we need mass immigration of “refugees”, which can not adapt to the local norms in our societies? If this is the new “communism”, I can surely do without. I don’t remember that the socialist/communist countries did condone any of these before the nineties…
A little populism in Brazil and the leftist ideologue in Pepe pops right out, like it’s the 1970s or 80s again. He seems to think its wonderful for the Chinese to build their Asian empire, but god forbid Europeans or Brazilians alike fight their cultural marxist rot.
Don’t forget that the Chinese government is Communist (and I am writing this from China – I work here, and I know very well that this brilliant Communist government is trying to develop capitalism as fast as possible to get rid of it as fast as possible).
Bolsonaro praises the past military dictatorship. And him and his supporters appear to want to return to that as soon as possible.
Trying to win by violence. Intimidating opponents. Killing some of them, and we know of course that those votes won’t be counted, like the 20% considered “null and void” in the first round in an attempt to push the pro-dictatorship candidate over the top.
“‘We Are Afraid’: Anti-Bolsonaro Voters, Journalists Targeted in Wave of Political Violence Across Brazil, Activists Call for Action”
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/We-Are-Afraid-Anti-Bolsonaro-Voters-Journalists-Targeted-in-Wave-of-Political-Violence-Across-Brazil-Activists-Call-for-Action-20181012-0010.html
“Members of the media have also come under attack in recent weeks, in one case a 40-year old female reporter was assaulted with a knife while attempting to vote. According to local media, two Bolsonaristas attacked the journalist after seeing her press credentials hanging from her neck. One of the attackers, while waving a knife and a Bolsonaro T-shirt, grabbed her and said: “When my commander wins the election you lot in the press will die.”
“The other one said, ‘Let’s take her off and rape her,’ and the one with the knife, said, “‘No, let’s cut her,’” according to a statement made by the journalist, who has pleaded for anonymity fearing further attacks.”
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In other words, the right is acting just like they always act. First comes the dehumanization of opponents, followed by the mass graves.
This is fascism.
And fascism is the opposite of Communism.
The situation in Brazil seems to be the continuing fight between High, Middle and Low: a corrupt plutocracy in the globalist camp, a large middle class (using that term loosely), and an almost overwhelming underclass.
The corrupt parties ruling now are obviously the agents of the plutocracy, while the disgraced former President was the clear champion of the underclass. Now the present populist challenger is the self-styled defender of the middle class who embraces him as their defender – that is the essence of all populist strongmen.
Even if that grotesque plutocracy was crushed in Brazil would that solve their problem? The other two sections of the population will always be in a zero sum game over the finite wealth of the country. Brazil really is a warning that Democracy probably can’t work in an unequal, multi-ethnic nation.