Adele Scalia, daughter-in-law of Justice Scalia, shared this photo on Facebook of her, Scalia, Maureen, and Adele's son. (Facebook)
Posted on 10/06/2018 7:34:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
He shocks many Western liberals, and some of his rhetoric on women and gays is certainly extreme. Still, Jair Bolsonaro's rise in the Brazilian polls isn't hard to understand. Because he is focused on three issues that now carry outsized concern in most Brazilian minds: reducing crime, countering corruption, and boosting the economy.
Correspondingly, the simplest issue in Bolsonaro's favor is that which was in Donald Trump's favor in 2016: popular anger over a sense of wasted potential. It's an easy case to make in Brazil today. That nation has vast natural resources, a comparatively well-educated population, but also pathetic statistics where it matters. Brazil's crime rates are an embarrassment, thanks to the 64,000 murders committed there in 2017. In comparison, the U.S. has 115 million more citizens than Brazil but less than 17,000 murders.
Then, there's Brazil's economic growth, which has mostly languished around 1 percent for the last five years. And then, there's the endemic corruption that plagues Brazil's political class. The current president is under formal investigation, the former president was impeached, and the president before that is in prison.
This gives Bolsonaro, a political outsider, an immense opportunity to direct the anger of a population that is deeply disenchanted with the status quo. When Bolsonaro promises not just reform but a whirlwind of reform, he earns favor. But what is often missed out here is just how much Bolsonaro's Workers' Party opponent, Fernando Haddad, represents a very damaged brand.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
The first two go hand in hand, just look at our own "Deep State", and him promising to actually do something about it is why they tried to assassinate him. Fix the first two and the third will fix itself.
This line of thinking (businessmen can make smart choices for government) just now had me wonder if Romney might have actually worked out okay. My conclusion: no. Romney wanted to make government more efficient, to get the most out of it. That's what he did in business. Trump wants to dismantle it (or at least the parts that choke us all) and unleash the rest of America. Romney might have been measured a success by the sorts of standards where a guy like Bill Clinton is considered a success (by some). But Trump is transformational. Many thought that with Trump we were betting big. He was either going to succeed in stratospheric levels or he was going to implode quickly. Verdict is in on that one, he's outpacing Reagan for most historically important and successful President in the past 75 years.
If there is a country that would clearly benefit from less government, its Brazil.
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Santa Catarina doesn’t have many of the problems that plague other states in Brazil. It might have something to do with the demographics. Nah. They must have a different constitution or religion or they persecuted other Brazilians or ... other excuses for ignoring reality.
They are free to come to Miami or Dallas and buy what they want and take plane loads home for others.
(I know this to be true. The wealthy Sao Paulo exchange student and sister who lived with us are now 50 and they make at least one buying trip per year)
The globe is in desperate need of a counter revolution to combat Marxism in all of it’s forms and replace it with freedom, liberty and a free market. We are way past the time to eradicate that failed 19th century philosophy.
This the guy that was stabbed a month ago?
In other words, common sense and in the mainstream of the last 2000 years of Western thought. Liberals do not understand that they, not the conservatives, are the extremists who are out of the mainstream.
Yes, he angered a lot of people because he promises to deploy the military to the Favelas to clear out the gangs and cartels that are in them. They’re trying to scaremonger Brazilians about him instituting death squads and another military regime, but the thing is crime and corruption is so bad that many Brazilians honestly would be OK with such and miss the stability of the military regime.
RE: This guy that was stabbed a month ago?
Yes. And he survived.
Brazil’s Trump? I hope so...
He's a member of the Social Liberal Party -- but a quick search will show the same media talking point, that he's "right-wing" or "extreme right-wing", rather than showing his party affiliation as is done for his main opponent.
Stefan Sweig (also attributed to Clemenceau and de Gaulle).
Go Bolsanaro!
Yes, for much of the 2000s, the Workers’ Party was seen as a savior of the lower classes, as a global beacon for reduced poverty and expanded opportunity. And it's true that Lula deserves some credit for that reduction in poverty. But democracies are not static, and that credit cannot overcome the rampant corruption. Bolsonaro is right on this key point: Brazil's national resources have been used to benefit political elites at the expense of economic potential.
He may be a “right wing extremist” but if he can possibly control the stunning corruption of brazil’s left wing elites, it would be astounding.
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