Today's attacks

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Twitter replies:

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Uncle Joe]

3. Congressman Jeffries gave a most excellent speech

[Rhiannon12866]

5. He certainly did, it was historic and gave us hope for the future!

Compare and contrast with the new Speaker who took 15 votes to get there and made promises that make his leadership vulnerable. Not to mention, in a post speech interview, he gave thanks to the losing candidate of the last national election!

[Uncle Joe]

7. I hear you Rhiannnon, nothing says thank you to the police officers that died and risked their lives

to save a bunch of ungrateful wretches in the Republican Party like the new majority leader thanking the man most responsible for the national tragedy.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Not to mention, only one lone Republican showed up to honor those who were lost on that day

Which tells us all we needed to know about where their loyalties lie...

[Uncle Joe]

12. 4 police officers committed suicide within months of that day

and he thanks *rump.

[calimary]

23. Yep. All you need to know.

[calimary]

29. It was VERY clever and well-written.

I love how he fit this A-to-Z in. Then McCarthy stepped up and embroidered a tapestry that sure sounded great but had little to do with Republican objectives. To me, it felt like he was trying to sound like a Democrat - while having no clue about what it means to be a Democrat.

And as a speaker, McCarthy is pretty ho-hum. Didn’t impress me. The little joke he opened with, about how long it took, was kinda cute. But the rest of the speech was totally forgettable and uninspiring.

[Uncle Joe]

31. I wouldn't envy anyone having to follow Jeffries speech much less

a dipshit like McCarthy.

[calimary]

43. Indeed. Can you say "upstaged"?

Who’s a leader and who’s a second-best!

[calimary]

44. Great post - especially the A-to-Z graphic!

I look forward to the upcoming and inevitable Speakership of Mr. Jeffries.

[iemanja]

2. Does Bernie think a resolution would have stopped this?

Brazil already had a free and fair election.

[Uncle Joe]

4. If we believe powerful forces were behind the coup of January 6th other than

the foot soldiers, then it's logical to believe the same in Brazil.

With that in mind, these powerful economic/political forces may have been persuaded by a strong resolution from the Congress.

It's a possibility that can't be entirely discounted.

As an aside, I have posted it elsewhere but I would wager that Santos received most of his dark money from Bosanaro and his people.

[iemanja]

6. That's ridiculous

And as in the case of so many Americans, you have an outside sense of this country's importance.
SMH

[Uncle Joe]

8. So you're saying it would entirely impossible for Brazilian economic/political forces

to be influenced by a strong resolution from the United States Congress, condemning any attempts at overthrowing their democracy?

[iemanja]

9. Of course

How on earth do you think it could? What makes you think most Brazilians are even aware of resolutions in our Senate? Most Americans aren't.

No wonder you post all these tweets. You think they are more important than actions and reality.

[Uncle Joe]

11. I'm not speaking of most Brazilians however even they have access to the Internet and T.V.

I was speaking of the powerful political and economic forces that egged on their foot soldiers.

We are Brazil's second largest trading partner and if we believe global warming climate change is for real and the Amazon rain forest needs protection then to me supporting democracy and the fight against climate change is paramount to our national security.

[iemanja]

13. Well, we did influence them in one way

From images flooding their TV screens, not some Senate resolution but the Trumpsters' effort to overturn democracy. The Senate resolution might get a line in a Brazilian newspaper or the nightly news, but it couldn't compare to the images of 1/6. But no, it is not in the world of reasonable thought to imagine a Senate resolution would have changed a thing. It would not alter Brazil's economy or political context. It doesn't even do that in the US. Believe it or not, the workings of the US Senate are not the most important thing in the lives of Brazilians.

I agree that climate change is important to our national security, but the Amazon is out of our control. Brazilians see the Amazon as theirs. When I was living in Brazil, someone shouted at me in Portuguese: "Tell Sting the Amazon is ours." That was decades before Bolsonaro. Lula promises a different policy than Bolsonaro had regarding the Amazon, but it is ultimately Brazil's decisions how they deal with it. That relates to their own economic and climate policy, not a US Senate resolution.

Brazil is a sovereign country with their own forces at work. You know it had decades of military dictatorship and has only been democratic for 25 years since that period? (It did have a period of democracy in the early to mid-20th century). The Bolsonaristas are calling for a renewed dictatorship with Bolsonaro at its head. Pro-dictatorship sentiment was evident in Brazil in the 1990s, long before Trump. While the images of the riots are similar to the US and obviously influenced by Jan 6, they take place within Brazil's own political context.

There could be nothing more meaningless to today's events than a US Senate Resolution. Biden already spoke about the importance of democracy in Brazil following Lula's election. That obviously didn't change things. How would a Senate resolution? I'm sorry you can't imagine a world that doesn't hang on every word uttered in the US Senate. Only in America could anyone dream up such a thing.

[betsuni]

14. [phone]

[Uncle Joe]

15. What makes you believe President Biden's speech didn't change things?

Had the coup attempt happened while Brazil's Congress and President were in office, things would be much worse.

If they were seriously trying a coup from the top doing it while their Congress was in session would be much more logical so as to eliminate any opposition.

Had our Congress also passed a resolution, there is a possibility no matter how remote that it would never have happened at all.

Nothing is absolute in regards to influence great and small despite our own anecdotal experiences.

Of course Brazil is still watching us and how we deal with our own enemies of democracy.

[iemanja]

16. Did the coup happen?

Enough said. Your argument is ethnocentric, and I find it distasteful. I would recommend you read some history of revolutions and popular movements to get a sense of how they take place.

[Uncle Joe]

17. I know how they take place, we supported many of them

[iemanja]

19. US military interventions, if that is what you are eluding to,

have often overturned governments generated by popular movements. Your video says nothing about the causes of social movements, left or right. You seem to see the world as top down. That's a very anti-socialist outlook.

[Uncle Joe]

20. Like democratically elected governments, we overthrew them

How I see the world and how I wish the world was are two different things.

I do see the world as top down, oligarchs and major corporate conglomerates rule, it's that simple there are 435 Congress People and as of 2019 over 11,000 lobbyists with untold wealth for influence purposes.

That's not to say that I believe we can't change to a more enlightened society and world but I believe we have a long way to go.

The main problem as I see it is while the wealthiest and most powerful in our society, including most of the corporate media prefer everyone to keep to looking left or right while the hammer falls from above, nobody should look up as far as they're concerned because their livelihoods depend on it or their greed demands it.

[iemanja]

24. Change has to come from below

From ordinary people banding together. That is the only way leftist social movements have ever happened.

[Uncle Joe]

26. Yes and your point is?

[iemanja]

27. Viewing the world from the top reinforces the status quo

It allows no agency for ordinary people.

[Uncle Joe]

28. Nothing in promoting people at the top to support the people at the bottom

takes away agency from ordinary people.

[TigressDem]

36. We simply STAND UP for DEMOCRACY like we did with UKRAINE

It isn't because US is all powerful, but we do have (or historically had) some influence.

It's part of "the WHOLE WORLD is Watching YOU" that CAN be a political deterrent, or at least it was in the past.

It's a show of UNITY. Or it could have been.

INSTEAD of being a country that other countries see as a solid Democracy, we can't even get together enough to pass resolutions that show we still believe in and support Democracy for those who reach out to US.

What Bernie says speaks more to our total disarray being an embarrassment to Democracy than any hope that our words alone would have saved Brazil.

HOW it USED to be was that when there was a threat to DEMOCRACY the US stood up and stood with those wanting to keep their DEMOCRACY. We would get NATO involved, have people help make sure voting was not being impeded. It would have lead to more than words, BUT THE US COULD NOT EVEN GET THE WORDS OUT because we are dealing with our own insurrectionists.

Before GW *ush we had a lot more political sway in the world. After 9/11 he lit a match in the middle east and we've been going down hill since then in many ways. 100's of years of political negotiations and establishing that we are a nation that was mature enough to be trusted flushed down the toilet.

We used to have enough conversations around the World that had become working relations even if we couldn't help everyone, at least we were trying NOT to be part of the problem. It's why countries have foreign ambassadors, to try and keep the peace and help when and if we can.

We were never some sort of magic wand, but we were often more helpful than harmful as a nation, even if our business folks dirtied up other countries worse than they did at home.

[iemanja]

46. We have committed billions in military aid to Ukraine

That is hardly the same as a senate resolution.

BTW, the resolution was passed months ago, according to another poster here. So much for stopping the riots.

[ShazzieB]

32. +1

Everything that happens in the world is not about us/U.S.

Too much speculation leads to conspiracy theories, and that way lies madness.

[Uncle Joe]

33. Of course it isn't

but to believe the world's longest standing democracy, wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world has no influence is a bit much.

[ShazzieB]

35. I did not say that.

[iemanja]

47. I didn't say no influence

In fact, I said specifically how 1/6 influenced the protestors. What I said is a senate resolution, which it turns out actually was passed (if another poster is accurate), didn't stop the riots.

BTW, you need to stop believing what your grade-school teachers told you. The US isn't close to the richest country in the world. not in terms of raw wealth or standard of living. The only thing we stand out in is having the biggest military. No wonder you think a senate resolution--or rather a tweet since the resolution was passed--is all powerful. You've bought into all the right-wing mythology about America.

[Uncle Joe]

48. GDP Per nation

https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/

Of course we have massive wealth inequality but for the entire nation, we lead the world in GDP the vast majority of the people just don't share in it.

We're also Brazil's second largest trading partner.

To believe we have no influence with Brazil would be the height of naivete

Passing the resolution unanimously in the Senate and President Biden's speech was absolutely the right thing to do and no doubt had influence on the people of Brazil just as the rest world condemnation helps

You didn't see Bolsanaro staying in Brazil for this coup attempt did you?

No, hell no he came to *rump's backyard in America like Neal Diamond would sing, close to Disney World, now why do believe he did that, because we have no political or economic influence?

Bolsanaro was influenced by *rump and his behavior on January 6th but he didn't have the guts to stay in Brazil during the coup attempt because our Senate and President unanimously condemned any attempts to overturn democracy in Brazil.

I have no doubt if we had ignored or been lukewarm about it, the chances of Brazil's coup attempt turning out like Honduras would've been greatly increased.

[40RatRod]

38. Good post.

Prepare for the flack you will receive from some that think they know it all.

[Lulu KC]

18. +1

[Hortensis]

37. :) The senate had unanimously PASSED that resolution in September,

of course. (The Biden administration had already taken genuine, substantial foreign policy actions to bolster democracy and freedom in Brazil. The unanimous senate vote was a nice statement of support, though.)

Given the timing, it seems unlikely that Senator Sanders would be trying to convince even his most devout admirers that the resolution could have stopped it. It's probably a reminder that they can count on him to issue tweets to put him and them out there when things are happening. And isn't that nice too.

[iemanja]

39. The OP thinks it would have stopped it

But he believed it hadn't been passed because of Sanders' tweet.

[Hortensis]

40. :) I think Sanders' tweet maybe was meant to work

equally well for followers who knew the senate had passed the resolution unanimously (reminder that they followed Sander's lead!) and those who didn't and have been trained to believe congress typically fails to do what's right and needs to be made "Brand New."

[betsuni]

45. Thank you for the info it had already passed.

I should know by now to check.

[Irishxs]

21. Can't Imagine...

where the Bolsanaro group learned how to storm the capital. We showed video of exactly how to do it.🥺

[Uncle Joe]

22. The major difference being, they did it when nobody was there,

there Congress was out of session and the President was out of town.

I believe the most critical thing will be, what we show them as to how we respond to our coup attempt.

[iemanja]

25. I suspect they will show us

how justice can work quickly and decisively. Lula is not tolerating this. They've already arrested hundreds.

[Justice matters.]

41. I predict their justice system will win that marathon by many months.

They'll show us how fast they'll identify the organizers and financiers, arrest, charge, and convict them to prison, no matter their political position or wealth.

How embarrassing that will be?

[yaesu]

30. Yes!!! Repeal the rich fascist tax cut and end banksters running the Fed. Nt

[myohmy2]

34. +1...

...that's my Bernie...

...fascist forces are on the rise everywhere powered by the unbridled wealth and influence of the fascist few...

...don't like the outcome of a democratic election...?

...then declare it rigged, ignore the results and overthrow the democratic institutions with force until you've gain power...

...straight from the MAGA-fascist playbook...

[Martin68]

42. Sanders is right. Trying to cut social security and affordable health care are not winning

propositions for any candidate.

[Uncle Joe]

49. That's what I believe as well Martin

I also believe the rabid Republicans will try it anyway and we would be wise to stay on offense against them for it.

[Martin68]

50. Absolutely, We can never let our guard down. those wolves are always circling the flock to see what

they can pick off in an unguarded moment.