How is it that -- in Democratic Party politics -- boycotting Israel (a foreign country) over its policies is a moral evil and an act of bigotry (that's the official DNC line), but it's noble to boycott specific states within one's own country to punish them for laws they enact?
My debut column for @cartacapital -- on how so many of the crises in Brazilian democracy with Bolsonaro can be traced to the unjust 2016 impeachment of Dilma and the corruption of the "anti-corruption" Car Wash probe -- is now available in English:
The column also describes my own involvement in Brazilian journalism and what led me to use my platform to start reporting on Brazil. 🇧🇷
I have lots of great interviews lined up for next week to talk about my new book -- about Brazil and my experiences with Bolsonaro doing the reporting we did -- that will be out on Tuesday. Given everything that's going on there, the timing is perfect.
Hilarious attempt by @mattyglesias to deny the reality that MSNBC (and CNN's) ratings are plummeting with Trump gone: he cites the first quarter, which includes January when Trump was still in office, with the Capitol riot & impeachment trial. Try looking now:
WashPost, to its credit, published a long article showing the data manipulation that Matt "Data Journalist Explainer" Yglesias just tried to peddle. They all had a ratings boom in January *because of Trump* - election fraud claims, Jan. 6, impeachment. Now it's all collapsing.
The issue with @ACLU is a bit more complex. They still have a few great lawyers who do old-school civil liberties work independent of partisan agendas. But the ACLU hides that work because they're so dependent on liberal donors, and because the dominant faction there opposes it:
ACLU still does stuff like represents NRA against NY State's attempt to destroy it. They represent @Snowden; still represent white supremacists' free speech & condemn Assange's prosecution. But they mostly hide rather than promote that. And it's increasingly just a liberal group.
From what I hear, one of the best reporters at the NYT is doing a big examination of the internal changes & factional conflicts within the ACLU: how liberal activism & Dem partisanship are drowning civil liberties. I examined some of that here:
"Many of those who invaded the halls of Congress on Jan. 6 are likely to get little or no jail time.....almost a quarter of the more than 230 defendants formally and publicly charged so far face only misdemeanors."
More here from the @washingtonpost on how judges are growing increasingly angry with attempts by prosecutors to imprison the Jan 6 protesters prior to trial, since so many of them used no violence or force: just strolled in as part of a protest:
The media/Democratic narrative that this was a "coup" or "insurrection" or existential threat to the Republic was the same kind of moral panic hysteria that reigned during the first War on Terror. What happened to the "insurrection"? It just vanished.
Bolsonaro yesterday forced out *six* of his ministers: including Defense Secretary, Attorney General-equivalent, and Foreign Minister. His Health Minister "resigned" last week. Part of it is an effort to consolidate control over the military as his presidency is shaken by crises.
As is typical for Brazilian politics, there's no pat explanation or unifying narrative. Lots of moving parts. But that's a lot of political instability for a country which is plagued with what is, by far, the planet's worst COVID crisis.
Major political crisis in Brazil right now. After 6 of Bolsonaro's ministers were fired or quit yesterday, including his Defense Minister, the 3 top military commanders - the heads of Army, Navy & Air Force - just quit in protest, leaving Bolsonaro very isolated but dangerous.
Powerful media figures now invoke sexist and racist tropes to cast themselves as so fragile and marginalized that critiques of their work constitute bullying and assault.
The *only* purpose of that @USAToday article -- like so many from CNN, NYT, Daily Beast, etc. -- was to ruin the lives of powerless private citizens: prevent them from raising donations for their legal defense!
Then these bullies turn around and self-victimize to bar criticism.