October 28, 2018

"Brazil on Sunday became the latest country to drift toward the far right, electing a strident populist as president in the nation’s most radical political change..."

"... since democracy was restored more than 30 years ago. The new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has exalted the country’s military dictatorship, advocated torture and threatened to destroy, jail or drive into exile his political opponents. He won by tapping into a deep well of resentment at the status quo in Brazil — a country whiplashed by rising crime and two years of political and economic turmoil — and by presenting himself as the alternative.... Hundreds of supporters gathered outside Mr. Bolsonaro’s seaside home in Rio de Janeiro, jumping and hugging each other when the results were announced. As golden fireworks lit up the sky, they chanted 'mito,' or legend, paying homage to their president-elect."

The NYT reports.

ADDED: Drift?

89 comments:

Michael K said...

And he was stabbed during the campaign. Fortunately, they have not been able to get to Trump yet.

The Deplorables are rebelling.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

The pions are tiring of the ruling elite. I think the biggest issue is the lack of democratic process in making laws. the unelected are running the show.

Big Mike said...

If the self-described elites want to stop losing elections to people they think of as "deplorable" and "irredeemable" then perhaps they should stop thinking that they already know everything there is to know and start listening, for a change. For the benefit of roesch and Freder, listening is an action performed with the ears.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

I'm pretty comfortable with American deplorables running America. I don't know enough to know whether the same applies with Brazillian deplorables and Brazil..

James K said...

It looks like they pulled an old paragraph about Trump, and changed a few words.

The new president, Donald Trump, has exalted the country’s military, threatened to jail his political opponents ("Lock her up!"). He won by tapping into a deep well of resentment at the status quo in America — a country whiplashed by rising inequality and eight years of political and economic turmoil — and by presenting himself as the alternative.

Bay Area Guy said...

Historically, the right was associated with imperialistic tendencies and/or downright invasions.

Nobody does this anymore. If you wanna give credit to the UN or EU, I can live with that.

So, Brazil’s not gonna invade anybody.

So, that means domestic issues predominate. More capitalism, more jobs, secure borders, less government overreaching, and voila, you got a winning platform.

The Left is simply unnecessary in this era of liberation - except in the most repressive regimes on the planet; namely the Muslim world.

WK said...

Does Bolsonaro have a twitter account?

Darrell said...

I think the Russians spent $16 to sway the election.

Leland said...

I'm sorry. I'm not a Gell-Mann sufferer, and I just read this quote by the NYT (link to Instapundit): "People used to think of jazz musicians as white men"

So when I now see the NYT writing about the "far right", I have to weigh against their understanding of other things in the world, like music. At this point, what I gather from the story is that the NYT wanted Bolsonaro to lose, and otherwise have no idea why he won because they don't understand culture.

rcocean said...

I love the "objective" journalism.

"Far Right" "Strident Populism" "Radical"

Gee, thanks NYT, for doing my thinking for me. No facts given, and I already knows it BAD.

I suppose - if I cared to read it - the rest of the article would tell me what this "crazy Right winger" was going to do.

Or maybe not.

WK said...

It seems that there is often a “deep well of resentment at the status quo”. Wonder why that is?

rcocean said...

"latest country to drift to right wing"

So, what are the other countries, NYT?

Because I can't think of any

Josephbleau said...


Blogger Diogenes of Sinope said...
The pions are tiring of the ruling elite.

"Down with the hadrons of higher mass!"

Michael K said...

Richard Fernandez weighs in.

Events like this pose a real intellectual challenge for the Third Way crowd. It can't just be Trump that's causing this, can it? There must be some unacknowledged problem with the old global world that is driving this.

His column tomorrow will be good.

David Begley said...

I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t believe a word in the NYT.

Michael K said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael K said...

Blogger is really going ape.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

To be fair to the NYT, which I hate to do, the tweet insty puts on the page about jazz musicians appears to be talking about London. I am prepared to believe that most British jazz musicians have been white: African Americans are thin on the ground there, and actual Africans have other musical traditions.

WK said...

The hadrons are probably all made of right spinning quarks.....

Big Mike said...

Meanwhile it is starting to look good for the GOP on November 6th. It now seems clear that all of the senate seats now held by Republicans will stay in Republican hands, including the one Bob Corker currently holds and the one that the eponymous Jeff Flake is retiring from. Donnelly, Heitkamp, and McCaskill seem to be goners, but the Senate will have the same number women, just two will be Republicans instead of Democrats. And the GOP should pick up at least two out of Montana, West Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota (Franken's old seat), New Jersey (!), and Florida. Not bad.

According to RealClearPolitics.com, 205 House seats are rated as "Safe Democrat," "Likely Democrat," or "Leans Democrat" versus 201 rated "Safe Republican," "Likely Republican," or "Leans Republican." If you're doing the math, that leaves 29 seats rated "Toss Up." All but one of those Toss Ups are currently held by Republicans, so all the Democrats need to do is win 13 of 31 to make Nancy Pelosi the next Speaker of the House. But I don't think that it's going to happen. Ten of the 17 "Leans Democrat" seats are currently held by Republicans, and the Democrats will not be able to flip them all. And all of the Republican seats rated "Toss Up" are held by Republican incumbents who have already won at least two races (2014 and 2016) so winning 13 of 31 (42%) of the Toss Up races won't be easy.

Rob said...

Doesn't the out party always present itself as the alternative to the party in power? See, e.g., "hope and change" in 2008. And the Democratic presidential candidate presenting himself or herself as the alternative to Trump and what they portray as the conditions Trump has created will be the certain theme in 2020.

Birkel said...

Big Mike makes the deep dive and confirms what I have been typing.

Republican over/under is 56.5 in the Senate.

Josephbleau said...

Blogger Darrell said...
I think the Russians spent $16 to sway the election.

Darrell, you are pitch perfect.

Sam L. said...

Is there a reason why I should trust the NYT? I know of none.

Birkel said...

Sam L:
You must trust the NYT because REASONS, damn it,
Important reasons.

Bay Area Guy said...

Also, how can any sane voter in South America look at Venezuela and not be highly skeptical towards any Leftwing socialist pipe dreams.

These socialist assholes will wreck your country if you give them power.

Wince said...

I support a woman’s right to “drift”.

Big Mike said...

You must trust the NYT because REASONS, damn it

@Birkel, would you agree with me that not only is the Times not as good as it's cracked up to be, but that it never was?

Michael K said...

These socialist assholes will wreck your country if you give them power.

Its the graft.

At least they put Lula in prison.Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva almost got out of jail this weekend. But alas he failed. The attempt, rejected by a higher court, was really just “plot-thickening” red meat for the foreign press. These guys in Brazil know exactly what they are doing.

Lula and his very busy lawyer Cristiano Zanin Martins are messaging professionals, skilled scriptwriters of a quasi-fabulist tale Brazil can’t shake: Lula, Political Prisoner. Act II.

It started back in 2016, Martins’ legal team sent a letter to the Human Rights Committee saying his client, known worldwide as Lula, was being persecuted for his politics. He wanted to help the poor and the working class.


Hilarious. But then:

Brazilians in the U.S. know that Lula is in jail because oil giant Petrobras was ransacked on his watch. His two successful terms as president, which began in 2003, were riddled with corruption allegations and indictments. His top lieutenants like ex-Finance Minister Antonio Palocci, chief of staff Jose Dirceu and Workers’ Party campaign advisors are in jail to this day. This is Lula’s inner circle.

But it’s not just his friends who have fallen in Brazil’s years-old corruption scandal. So have the politicians that went after his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president impeached in 2015. Brazil’s equivalent of House Speaker Paul Ryan, career congressman Eduardo Cunha, is in jail, too.


Socialism, the solution to prison reform. They can work on it from the inside.

Drago said...

Cant wait for all the usual suspects to come along and explain how the Brazilians voted against their own interests.

n.n said...

Drift, or progress, is a monotonic process or change.

n.n said...

The right in America is libertarian. The center is Constitutional or conservative. Drifting leftward we encounter progressivism, liberalism, and the Marxist cousins.

n.n said...

Blogger is really going ape.

It's chewing on deplorables, preparing for Google... Alphabet to spit them out.

Birkel said...

Big Mike,
I would agree that the NYT was never as good as the NYT believed it was.
But I cannot agree that the NYT was ever better than I believed it was.

The NYT was always suspect to a critical eye.

narciso said...

As Buckley used to wag 'Fidel got his job through the times' aickmin didn't get more traction because he was still connected to the official opposition party.

n.n said...

I support a woman’s right to “drift”.

To hallucinate in diverse colors. Most women don't, won't, but they lose their opportunity to make the NYT's front page.

Rory said...

No Electoral College down there. Popular vote, with a runoff between the top 2.

Tim said...

"drift toward far right"---i.e. not globalist commies

n.n said...

Or drift as in orbital decay. Brazil's president must have cancelled their subscription to NYT.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

So almost 60% of the population is far right. I guess that makes the "far right" mainstream.

Achilles said...

Big Mike said...
Meanwhile it is starting to look good for the GOP on November 6th.

It has always been good.

The media was just lying to you about what people thought.

Early votes in keys states are in.

We have real polls with millions of votes.

It is going to be glorious. The republicans are going to have more house seats than they have now.

For point of reference The Hutchinson/Cantwell race is in single digits in internal polls here in Washington State.

Over/under for republicans in the senate is now 60.5 and republicans in the house is 240.

The tears will be delicious.

narciso said...

This is bolsanaro chief economic advisor,


http://www.whartonlima08.com/bio-guedes.html

You do know who Is Brazil's northwestern neighbor

Lucid-Ideas said...

I think he'll do great. I listened to two interviews of him with subtitles and his rhetorical command is amazing plus he's not afraid in the slightest to fight the far-left...he's got a long track record of doing so.

In other news Hillary is saying she wants a 3rd shot in 2020. Desperation is a stinky perfume.

M Jordan said...

Drift, indeed. That word stuck out like a pimple on a cheerleaders cheek.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Democracy doesn't work unless people vote like the NY Times staff.

Ken B said...

Ann's question is acute. Clearly people around the world are reacting against the international neoliberal elite. That sounds like there is an underlying cause. Not to the NYT.

NYT

https://static.pjmedia.com/instapundit/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ny_times_jazz_tweet_10-28-18-1-539x800.jpg

Never-Biden Never-Putin said...

far right? or just not so leftwing anymore because leftism is a nasty bad cult that bankrupts.

Quayle said...

“....African Americans are thin on the ground [in London...]”

Reminds me of when we lived in Paris and my kids were talking about a friend with darker skin as an African-American, and I said to them I don’t think she is an African-American. She is French.

Also funny that a majority of voters can be deemed or called extreme. Extreme compared to who? The faculty of some Ivy League humanities department?

Never-Biden Never-Putin said...

Meanwhile - Hillary is still haunting us... the un-inidcted felon who excuses her husband's sexual abuse is determined to institutionalize her corruption.

wild chicken said...

Don't think our bug-eyed dork of a candidate will win in Montana. Not for Trump not trying, though. Going to Bozeman this week.

Paul said...

Wow... imagine.. privatize companies (no more state ran stuff), liberalize gun ownership (since all the bad guys have guns.. why not?), actually use the rain forest to make $$ by managing it. Next thing you know and this guy will maybe try to have a Bill of Rights for individuals.

Shocking!

Big Mike said...

@Achilles, don't get cocky.

Steven said...

>Josephbleau said...

>Blogger Diogenes of Sinope said...
>>The pions are tiring of the ruling elite.

>"Down with the hadrons of higher mass!"

Marriage is a union of a quark and an antiquark, not three quarks!

wholelottasplainin said...


Blogger Leland said...
I'm sorry. I'm not a Gell-Mann sufferer, and I just read this quote by the NYT (link to Instapundit): "People used to think of jazz musicians as white men"
*************************
I'm sure Gell-Mann, of all people, would pick up the "pion" reference.

snort!

Leland said...

Wow unknown, I understand the reluctance to apologize for the NYT, but you did a wonderful job making them look less ignorant than yourself. Next time, I advise sticking to subjects for which you have knowledge. BTW, I spent much of this month in London. Setting aside Jazz and the NYT; it is a very diverse city.

mockturtle said...

Leave it to the NYT to give an objective and accurate report.

FIDO said...

Here is the very first indication that the Left had left persuasive argument land: Roe vs. Wade.

They no longer could wait and persuade. They need a dictatorial leftist octogenarian to FORCE their points into place. And every rebuff they meet from the populous is seem as discrediting democracy.

They are children who can't accept a loss.

narciso said...

Well it is a diverse city by way of ethnicity interms of viewpoint it's a monolith.

RichardJohnson said...

"Far right" = doesn't like Lula's Petrobras corruption.
"Moderate"= has no problem with Lula's Petrobras corruption.
Thank you, New York Times, for defining things for me.

Seeing Red said...

If his name was only Beto....

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Leland said...

At this point, what I gather from the story is that the NYT wanted Bolsonaro to lose, and otherwise have no idea why he won because they don't understand culture.


The NYT turned into the Manhattan Pennysaver a long time ago.

The Genius Savant said...

Who gets to decide who is "far right"?

Gahrie said...

They are children who can't accept a loss.

Partly because of the fact that everything is political with them. On the Right we are able to retreat to those parts of our life free from politics to find peace and heal as we deal with our political defeats. The Left has no such place to heal...so they never recover their equilibrium, just bounce from one defeat to another.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

let me take a 'stab' at this Brazilian thing.
"Drifting' seems like a slow, easy, aimless affair--
to go from left to 'far right' in a short time doesnt seem like 'drifting'.
Maybe more like a mad dash to the exit during an emergency

William said...

Fire and ice. Whatever social forces that corrupted Lula will work their magic on this new guy. Well, maybe he'll be a tad less hypocritical. That's worth something, and, anyway, the sleaziest kind of capitalism is less damaging than the purest kind of socialism. I don't predict a happy ending, but there will be less bodies littered on the stage in this production of King Lear,

Drago said...

The only reason he won is white supremacy and the stupidity of Brazils midwest voters!! (Its the only explanation leftists in the Americas have left)

YoungHegelian said...

The Left keeps portraying these electoral victories by the Right as some sort of resurgence of demons long kept under wraps. That's not what they are.

What they are are judgments on the competency of the ruling classes. The ruling classes have for waaay too long been too indulgent of their own greed & incompetence (e.g. the E.U. Parliament has not been through an audit in well over 15 years now). Until the ruling classes start holding themselves to high performance & moral standards, the revolt will continue. Unfortunately, there's no evidence of any introspection, much less acceptance of the fact that to turn things around they're going to actually start kicking each other into shape.

narciso said...

Duque in Colombia, pinera in Chile for a second time (he was a junior official in the Pinochet era) macri in Argentina (he's running into some headwinds)

walter said...

Doctors say he suffered a deep and life-threatening wound in his intestines, but is now recovering well.

His son, Flavio Bolsonaro, said it was unlikely that his father would be able to return to campaigning before next month's election.

He said his father was still weak and had trouble speaking, adding: "He cannot go to the streets, but we can."

The controversial politician has won supporters for his tough stance on crime, but has outraged many in Brazil with racist and homophobic comments.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45451473

funsize said...

If you thought the conditions that brought us Trump were bad, Brazil's were/are worse, likely by an order of magnitude. Corruption, poverty, drug epidemics, economic woes, etc. It's not a particularly uplifing scenario.

walter said...

dunno funsize,
Robert Reich assured us way back that Brazil was the one to watch...

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Rio is an incredibly dangerous place. Many wealthy inhabitants get around the city via helicopter because kidnapping people for ransom is common. And when the ransom money does not arrive in a timely manner, the person kidnapped might lose ears or fingers. Plastic surgeons in Rio not only do boob jobs and face lifts, they also work on the disfigured victims of kidnappers.

And life is even scarier for those without the means to afford a chopper and a condo in a building with a helicopter pad on the roof.

I'm guessing that trumps - so to speak - any "racist and homophobic comments" Bolsonaro has made.

Critter said...

Scary words from the media no longer carry the intended meaning.

For The NY Times to write that Brazil is drifting toward the far right just means that Bolsonaro is upsetting the leftist elite agenda.

Why shouldn’t readers see The NY Times as anti-democratic?

Achilles said...

How long before Merkel falls?

Brexit was a good step.

The Mullahs in Iran will fall.

Democrats are losing every election they can't rig.

Hungary kicked Soros's "university" full of leftist goons out.

But it is not all lost for leftists. They are still holding on in Venezuela and Cuba. Obrador is going to bring a leftist bent to Mexico.

We should have the wall up before he gets to far into his administration.

Yancey Ward said...

Merkel's days are numbered, I think. The coalition partner, the SPD is losing huge chunks of its base to the Green Party, and this is solely due to the SPD's junior coalition to the CDU that has kept Merkel in power. With this weekend's result in the region of Hesse, where the SPD cratered, I think they will withdraw support from Merkel at some point and force her to either call new elections, or find some other coalition. It is the only way the SPD survives as a party- it has to become an actual opposition rather take the crumbs Merkel has given them.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Brazil’s President-elect @jairbolsonaro has pledged to do the following:
-Privatize industries
-Allow a Brazilian equivalent of gun rights
-Pull Brazil out of the Paris Accords
-Foster better Israel-Brazil relations
-Defund abortion

Sounds good to me!


Looks like @jairbolsonaro pulled former Lula da Silva (imprisoned president )votes, spanning socio-economic and racial spectrum. Supporters ranged from “billionaire city bankers to Amazon tribesmen.”

Amazon tribesmen - those notable white supremacists.

Yancey Ward said...

Some wag a long time ago wrote that 'Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be'.

Culture is a near impossible thing to change.

RichardJohnson said...

Drago

The only reason he won is white supremacy and the stupidity of Brazils midwest voters!! (Its the only explanation leftists in the Americas have left)


He won because of the Confederado vote.


The American Confederacy is still alive in a small Brazilian city called Americana.

I know a SJW type who moved to Sao Paolo. At one time he wanted to become a teacher so he could "educate" students in lefty doctrine. Bet he is not a happy camper with the results.

Robert said...

The NYT reports. Eye roll. Anyone who isn't an ardent leftist is far-right to the NYT.

viator said...

Far right? From what perspective exactly?

FIDO said...

Far right? From what perspective exactly?


California of course.

Kevin said...

ADDED: Drift?

Nothing but progressivism can be seen as a logical or viable choice.

mockturtle said...

Trump is actually a moderate Republican. The conservative Republicans refused to endorse his Presidency. OTOH, the majority of new Dem candidates are on the extreme end of their party.

Paul said...

So Brazil goes MAGA!! Except it's MBGA!!

Congrats!

MadTownGuy said...

Faça o Brasil Otimo Novamente. FBON.

hstad said...

Drago states - "...The only reason he [Bolsonaro] won is white supremacy..." very good sarcasm! Lived in Brazil and know that mixed races are huge. There are about 90 million whites, 82 million mixed and 14 million blacks. I guess somebody had to cross over to elect Bolsonaro.

n.n said...

-Defund abortion

The scientific consensus is that a human life evolves from conception. Catholics, on principle, are big on the sanctity, value, and dignity of life.

Jim at said...

As golden fireworks lit up the sky...

So that's where Hillary's unused fireworks went.

Baceseras said...

The headline writer probably used "to drift" not in the sense of "move casually," but "go astray."