{"id":5563,"date":"2021-07-08T18:10:36","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T18:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5563"},"modified":"2021-07-08T18:10:36","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T18:10:36","slug":"jair-bolsonaro-is-facing-a-political-reckoning-in-brazil-how-far-will-it-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5563","title":{"rendered":"Jair Bolsonaro is facing a political reckoning in Brazil. How far will it go?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Brazil\u2019s coronavirus situation is dire, but it\u2019s not surprising<\/a> given that Bolsonaro downplayed the pandemic from the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He called it the \u201clittle flu<\/a>.\u201d He shrugged at the country\u2019s mounting death toll by saying \u201cwe\u2019ll all die one day<\/a>.\u201d He undermined governors\u2019 attempts to enforce social distancing<\/a> and other measures, insisting economies reopen. He used a homophobic slur to refer to those who wore masks<\/a>. He has continued to tout the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine <\/a>and other unproven drugs<\/a> as coronavirus cures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to Covid-19 vaccinations, Bolsonaro has sowed misinformation and doubt. In December, he said of possible side effects on the Pfizer vaccine, \u201cIf you turn into a crocodile, it\u2019s your problem<\/a>.\u201d He strongly criticized<\/a> Chinese-made vaccines, including bashing his own government\u2019s deal to acquire the CoronaVac vaccine. \u201cThe Brazilian people WON\u2019T BE ANYONE\u2019S GUINEA PIG,\u201d he wrote on social media last year.<\/a> Ultimately, Bolsonaro had to backtrack early this year<\/a> and thank China for fast-tracking the vaccine, as Brazil faced a deadly wave of the pandemic, with few vaccines available.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The thing standing in the way is the Centr\u00e3o (Big Center), a bloc of centrist voting parties in Brazil\u2019s Congress. Bolsonaro has basically had to build alliances with these members of Congress, who agree to work with Bolsonaro in exchange for the president basically giving them what they want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBolsonaro has actually gotten pretty good at handing out goodies \u2014 like pork-barrel projects \u2014 for the members of Congress to bring home the bacon and show their voters that they\u2019re doing their job,\u201d said David Samuels, distinguished McKnight University professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. \u201cAnd so they\u2019re also happy to see Bolsonaro twist in the wind as long as he keeps the spigots of money going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts said it\u2019s going to take a lot for them to basically turn their back on those goodies \u2014 whether they\u2019re cushy jobs or beneficial projects. An investigation<\/a> by the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo found that Bolsonaro\u2019s government set aside about 20 billion reais ($3.9 billion) for what are basically pork projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe question for impeachment becomes this: Does popular will and senatorial and deputy outrage turn to the point where enough are willing to abandon that sort of legislative sway over the national political agenda for the sake of impeachment?\u201d Snider of the University of Texas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, the answer looks like a big \u201cno.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2021\/6\/4\/22456981\/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-impeachment-protests-coronavirus<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Brazil\u2019s coronavirus situation is dire, but it\u2019s not surprising given that Bolsonaro downplayed the pandemic from the beginning.<\/p>\n

He called it the \u201clittle flu.\u201d He shrugged at the country\u2019s mounting death toll by saying \u201cwe\u2019ll all die one day.\u201d He undermined governors\u2019 attempts to enforce social distancing and other measures, insisting economies reopen. He used a homophobic slur to refer to those who wore masks. He has continued to tout the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and other unproven drugs as coronavirus cures.<\/p>\n

When it comes to Covid-19 vaccinations, Bolsonaro has sowed misinformation and doubt. In December, he said of possible side effects on the Pfizer vaccine, \u201cIf you turn into a crocodile, it\u2019s your problem.\u201d He strongly criticized Chinese-made vaccines, including bashing his own government\u2019s deal to acquire the CoronaVac vaccine. \u201cThe Brazilian people WON\u2019T BE ANYONE\u2019S GUINEA PIG,\u201d he wrote on social media last year. Ultimately, Bolsonaro had to backtrack early this year and thank China for fast-tracking the vaccine, as Brazil faced a deadly wave of the pandemic, with few vaccines available.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The thing standing in the way is the Centr\u00e3o (Big Center), a bloc of centrist voting parties in Brazil\u2019s Congress. Bolsonaro has basically had to build alliances with these members of Congress, who agree to work with Bolsonaro in exchange for the president basically giving them what they want.<\/p>\n

\u201cBolsonaro has actually gotten pretty good at handing out goodies \u2014 like pork-barrel projects \u2014 for the members of Congress to bring home the bacon and show their voters that they\u2019re doing their job,\u201d said David Samuels, distinguished McKnight University professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. \u201cAnd so they\u2019re also happy to see Bolsonaro twist in the wind as long as he keeps the spigots of money going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts said it\u2019s going to take a lot for them to basically turn their back on those goodies \u2014 whether they\u2019re cushy jobs or beneficial projects. An investigation by the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo found that Bolsonaro\u2019s government set aside about 20 billion reais ($3.9 billion) for what are basically pork projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question for impeachment becomes this: Does popular will and senatorial and deputy outrage turn to the point where enough are willing to abandon that sort of legislative sway over the national political agenda for the sake of impeachment?\u201d Snider of the University of Texas said.<\/p>\n

Right now, the answer looks like a big \u201cno.\u201d”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[718,107,588,409,483],"class_list":["post-5563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-bolsonaro","tag-brazil","tag-corona","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5564,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions\/5564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}