U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Brazilian Judge Overseeing Bolsonaro Coup Case
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39966382
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36543423
Every thread about this subject I go out of my way to recount what I saw and reference similar comments.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44619572
I waited years for today's news. My only complaint is they sanctioned a single judge rather than the entire supreme court.
It's really simple. I looked up the brazilian constitution on the internet. I read it. When I tried to reconcile the text with what the judges were doing, I couldn't. My conclusion was that they were and still are engaging in blatantly unconstitutional acts. The constitution says something can't be done but they keep doing it. How can you possibly reach any other conclusion?
These judges are effectively writing a new constitution and a new set of laws. They have not been elected. Therefore, Brazil is not a democracy. It's a dictatorship of the unelected judiciary. How can you possibly reach any other conclusion?
I have found the people who tried to debate these matters with me utterly unconvincing. I would love to be shown that this country is not what I believe it to be but that seems increasingly unlikely.
I'm tired of being told everything I know and remember is "fake" or whatever. I feel like I'm being constantly gaslit. Pretty much everything these judges censored as "fake news" was either true or became true literally months into Lula's mandate. Literal Ministry of Truth.
And my fears are not at all unfounded. They've prosecuted completely normal people who criticized them in the past. They've gone after teenagers over online comments. I'm taking risks by posting here because of my sense of justice. I'm just too disgusted and disillusioned by what's happening in this country to keep quiet about it.
>I have found the people who tried to debate these matters with me utterly unconvincing. I would love to be shown that this country is not what I believe it to be but that seems increasingly unlikely.
There's nothing that I can say that you aren't going to ignore, because you are smarter than me and you cannot think that your conclusions are wrong, either because you think you are 100% logical or because you don't see how your emotions are clouding your thoughts. I was exactly like that some years ago, before therapy. I would suggest the same for you, but you will probably consider that gaslighting. Again, you are smart, which makes hard to accept that you are not being rational as you think you are. A good therapist would have the tools to help you realize that.
>And my fears are not at all unfounded. They've prosecuted completely normal people who criticized them in the past. They've gone after teenagers over online comments. I'm taking risks by posting here because of my sense of justice. I'm just too disgusted and disillusioned by what's happening in this country to keep quiet about it.
I know people who spend most of their online time posting about this topic on public social media, some of their posts getting very close to death threats, every day, and nothing happens to them. Some of them works as public legislative servants, what makes them an easy target for censorships. We have elected people posting all day about it, some of them asking for military coups, and nothing ever happens to them. The probability of you getting arrested because of comments on Hacker News are so low that I cannot see that thought as something different of delusion.
I ignore nothing. I'm just not convinced when people start claiming that there was a military coup attempt or that these judges did not engage in unconstitutional political censorship. I always explain why and leave myself open to refutation.
There's plenty you can say to me. I've incorporated quite a lot of information people have told me into my world view. For example, I learned about Trump and Musk's possible economic interests from a leftist publication that someone cited while arguing with me. That's a lot more interesting to me than tired worker's party talking points.
> therapy
I go to therapy every week. Not because of this though. My therapist's reaction to this matter was to tell me to focus on things I could directly control. Perfectly reasonable advice.
> The probability of you getting arrested because of comments on Hacker News are so low that I cannot see that thought as something different of delusion.
So we do agree that the chances are not zero.
Advice you totally ignore and you keep using HN just to engage in political discussions spreading lies and fake news. Comical.
"Just"? You make it sound like I'm some sort of sock puppet account.
Post and comment history are available on my profile page. I participated in a discussion about low level ELF hacking not even two days ago. People have submitted my GitHub projects here.
> spreading lies and fake news
Lies according to whom? You? Right.
If I'm so wrong, just refute what I'm saying with strong arguments. I'll change my tune. If you can't or won't, then just downvote the post or something. Kindly refrain from name calling and baseless accusations.
The problem is that this particular person was among the protesters, selling t-shirts.
The justice system combed through his social media and found posts criticizing Lula back in 2018. That was used as justification by the court to keep him in prison, even without a trial.
Arbitrary arrests are happening in Brazil.
In situations like this, where the highest court is making decisions like these, I believe the only reasonable stance is paranoia—because if they can imprison you without trial, without evidence, without anything… who are you supposed to turn to?
This is about one wannabe tough-guy looking out for his wannabe tough-guy pals.
What evidence do you have that everything he did until now isn't prescribed by the Brazilian Constitution? He is just enforcing the Constituition
> Any and all censorship of political and artistic nature is prohibited
Before the 2022 election, these judges went out of their way to censor pretty much everything Bolsonaro and his supporters said. They just decided everything was "fake news" and ordered it all taken down. Unconstitutional political censorship.
I watched them censor a documentary that had not even been released. A priori censorship, something not seen in these lands since the military dictatorship of the 20th century.
Making a mockery out of our nation's highest laws wasn't enough for them, they went on to brag about it in public. "We defeated Bolsonarism", proclaimed one of the supposedly impartial judges. "Lula is president today due to the decisions of the supreme court", claims another judge. "I wouldn't have won the elections were it not for... [cut off]", muttered absent mindedly into a hot mike by none other than current president Lula himself the day he took office.
These are not the only abuses perpetrated by the court. As far as I know, it started in 2019 when a magazine ran a damning article on one of them. In response to that, they started a "fake news" inquisition that lasts to this day. They're basically the victims, investigators, prosecutors, judges and executioners of wildcard crimes against thenselves covering the entire brazilian territory. Details here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39966382
Suffice it to say that the magazine was censored, proper due process was not observed, conflicts of interest were not resolved, and so on and so forth. But the "fake news" inquisition kept going. It was under its umbrella that they engaged in their censorship efforts against Bolsonaro and his supporters. I witnessed journalists and even youtubers seek political asylum in the US.
Things kept escalating further and further until they blocked Twitter nationwide and essentially stole millions of dollars out of the US economy via fines for failures to comply with illegal censorship orders. Then they declared social media companies liable for user content which in effect gets them to preemptively censor content, thereby privatizing their censorship. Trump is finally striking back against them with much awaited sanctions.