Brazil’s imitation of the 2021 riot – Trump threatens his judge – Betrayal by Biden – Evening statistics
It’s been cold today, grayish, with the wind perpetually blowing, and I’ve been idle as well, so I naturally am in a disgruntled mood. Besides, the news has not been good.
I have neglected to mention that during this past Sunday Brasilia was witness to a scene that mirrored that of Washington two years ago. Supporters of right former President Jair Bolsonaro marched through the streets as an ad hoc army, invading and defacing Brazil’s Congress, presidential palace, and Supreme Court. Even though it was the worst demonstration of politically motivatied violence in Brazil since the 1980s, there were several differences in the two episodes, all of them in favor of Brazil. Bolsonaro was not actually present to orchestrate the event personally, being ill in Florida. There was a great deal of destruction – furniture was thrown through the smashed windows of the presidential palace, parts of Congress were flooded with a sprinkler system, ceremonial rooms in the Supreme Court were ransacked – but no one was actually killed. But essentially the scenario is the same: like Trump, Bolsonaro was defeated in a national election, refused to accept the result, and organized an attempt to overturn it, using social media to incite the rioters. But Brazilians are relatively fortunate. On Monday, the day after the riots ensued, Bolsonaro was seized with stomach pains and admitted to a hospital, while it seems likely that the U.S. government will expel him to his homeland. Lula’s government has been a great deal more pro-active than our own in the aftermath of the onslaught, having already thrown 1500 of the rioters in prison.
Speaking of Trump, incidentally, he never can remain removed from the headlines for long. Yesterday the results of a deposition he gave in response to the charge leveled by E. Jean Carroll’s charges of sexual assault was made public; and his defense strategy is, to say the least, unique. First he assailed the plaintiff with calumny and abuse, calling her a “nut job” and the perpetrator of “a complete scam” in which she described the rape as she “was promoting a really crummy book” – behavior which is more or less to be expected from him. But then he went not only to threaten her but Lewis Kaplan, the presiding judge, as well. “I will sue her after this is over, and that’s the thing I really look forward to doing. And I’ll sue you too,” he told Kaplan. Not surprisingly, Kaplan upheld the lawsuits alleging rape and defamation and seeking unspecified damages by Carroll, saying they could proceed to trial because Trump’s challenges were “without merit.”
The episode has its comic aspect, but there is nothing amusing about the revelation that Biden appears to be as culpable as Trump in his handling of classified documents from the Obama era, when he was Vice President. He has removed several from the sensitive compartmented information facilities (SCIFs), where they belong, and has stored them at the garage in his private residence In Wilmington, just as Trump removed several to his private residence in Mar-a-Lago.
I have striven, as I believe, to be even-handed in these records; and while I continue to abominate Trump as a seditious traitor, I have not glossed over the numerous failings of the current administration: the mishandling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the complete irresponsibility in dealing with the border crisis, the perverse championship of so-called transgender rights that more often than not are an excuse for men trampling down women. But up to now I had some confidence in his basic integrity. This episode has been a rude awakening. Whether the reason for illegally storing such documents in an unprotected private dwelling for years on end is the result of future plans during an earlier decade for jockeying for power or simply of carelessness due to premature senility I neither know nor care. The fact remains that he is as great as an offender against the country’s security as his predecessor. For the present the White House refuses to release records of who visited the house while the documents have been lodged there. I can only echo the passionate cry of Mrs. Boyle from Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, upon discovering that the man who was engaged to her daughter first impregnated her and afterwards deserted her: “oh, is there not even a middlin’ honest man left in th’ world?”
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 671,177,343; # of deaths worldwide: 6,729,721; # of cases U.S.: 103,573,042; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,125,539.