Now’s the time
In Brazil’s capital city of Brasilia, protestors are enjoying America’s latest export: fascism. The National Congress building and several other government buildings were stormed and broken into Sunday by right-wing extremist supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. They did it because they refused to accept his election defeat. It might be useful for you to know, brothers and sisters, that “big lie” in Portuguese is “grande mentira.”
Meanwhile Jair Bolsonaro is in the safest place he can possibly be. He’s in Florida. There can be little doubt that there are no shortages of sympathetic ears down there, including those belonging to both Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Much of Florida is on the side of the protestors. Scumbags like Steve Bannon are also cheering the Brazilian revolt.
I don’t think there can be any doubt that the unrest in Brazil is directly traceable to people like Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon and Donald Trump. Without them and their spear-carriers there would have been nobody to give Brazilian fascists the idea that storming government buildings is “legitimate political discourse” instead of what it actually is, a traitorous attempt to overthrow both a legitimate election and a peaceful transfer of power. Nice going Trump, Miller and Bannon, your fascism is now on a world tour, and the world is less safe because of you.
Not to say anything against monkeys, but this is just a case of monkey see, monkey do. Stupid Brazilians saw what stupid Americans did and they decided to imitate it, stupidly. There’s something about the configurations of certain human brains that makes certain people adore violent and totalitarian fascists like Trump and Bolsonaro. Such people exist everywhere in the world including, as was so graphically and recently demonstrated, Brazil.
Initially, Brazilians giggled at the fools who protested and carried signs about the “stolen” election. It’s easy to understand why. Those protestors must have looked every inch as absurd as America’s own MAGA crowd with their silly hats and badly spelled signage.
But there’s too often deadly intent behind the glassy eyes of the ardent lovers of fascism. America made the mistake of underestimating its own crowd from January 6. So Department of Justice, if you’re listening, America’s bad guys need to be put in prison ASAP. There are many who need to go away, but Bannon with his Brazilian links together with Stephen Miller and Donald Trump top the list. And for good measure, the insurrectionists in Congress still plotting to destroy America are still enjoying too much freedom to do too much harm, and they need to go away as well.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am tired of waiting and I have a right to be tired. Too many innocent people are suffering because bad guys are still unindicted. It’s time to indict, and let the chips fall where they may. For one thing, I don’t want to look up the translation of “big lie” in other languages. Brazil’s grande mentira ought to scare us enough. Let’s stop the bad guys now. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.