Sunday, November 4, 2018

Bolsonaro's Victory, Trump and Pittsburgh, Honduran Migrants & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos October 28 - November 4

This week's list of articles, news items, opinion pieces and videos that I see as a must if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.

It begins with extensive sections of articles related to the election of Bolsonaro and the aftermath of the Pittsburgh anti-Semitic synagogue attack.

This list covers the week of October 28 - November 4.

Brazil has just elected Jair Bolsonaro, a fascist for president!



1) JAIR BOLSONARO IS ELECTED PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL. READ HIS EXTREMIST, FAR-RIGHT POSITIONS IN HIS OWN WORDS.

Andrew Fishman, The Intercept

JAIR BOLSONARO WAS elected president of Brazil on Sunday evening. The far-right candidate received more than 55 percent of valid votes. His opponent, Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party, received less than 45 percent. In a country with compulsory voting, almost 29 percent of adults preferred to annul or not cast their ballot.

2) Brazil presidential election: Who is Jair Bolsonaro and why is he more dangerous than Trump?

Alex Hochuli, NBC

The election of neo-fascist presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is raising fears that Brazil could be the latest country hit by a wave of far-right authoritarians. Bolsonaro, though, represents something scarier than Donald Trump, the politician he is most often compared to. Following the election on Oct. 28, the world’s fourth-largest democracy is in danger.

3) Brazil election: Bolsonaro's victory and the struggle ahead

Orlando Hill, Counterfire

The victory for far-right Bolsonaro is a dangerous development and it is now a critical moment for the left to unite and win the streets.

4) Haddad: PT Will Fight for Social Unification of Brazil

Telesur

The former candidate of the PT said that Brazilians must aspire for a great social movement to defend the freedoms and rights of Brazilians.

5) After Win by Brazilian Fascist Jair Bolsonaro, World's Capitalists Salivate Over 'New Investment Opportunities'

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

As Brazilian women, the LGBTQ community, workers, and people of color reacted with horror to the election of fascist Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency on Sunday after a campaign dripping in bigotry and militarism, Western corporate interests and the business press could hardly contain their glee over the victory of the hard-right former paratrooper who has promised to further pry open Brazilian markets to foreign investment, slash corporate taxes, and privatize the nation's public services.

(Related: The CBC notes the victory of fascism in Brazil by how it could benefit Canadian business. Seriously.)

6) Fascism has arrived in Brazil – Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency will be worse than you think

Benjamin Fogel, The Independent

The world’s fourth largest democracy and the biggest economy in Latin America has elevated a man who promises to imprison or banish his political enemies and who has openly declared he will enact a historic cleansing of the left after taking office. Jair Bolsonaro is not a normal presidential candidate. He is openly hostile to democracy and will probably be the most extremist elected leader in the world.

7) Netanyahu Congratulates Bolsonaro for Brazil Election Win, Invites Him to Israel

Noa Landau, Haaretz

Far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro is an Israel supporter and has promised to move Brazil's embassy to Jerusalem.

8) Christian Fascism Comes To Brazil: New President Bolsonaro Promises Christian Theocracy

Michael Stone, Patheos 

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s new president, is a dangerous Christian fascist who promises to remake Brazil into a Christian theocracy.

9) Scientists are terrified that Brazil's new president will destroy the 'lungs of the planet'

Hilary Brueck, Business Insider

Bolsonaro plans to cut down more of the world's largest tropical rainforest, and critics fear he'll 'institutionalize genocide' in the Amazon.

10) BBC tweet asks if Brazil’s new leader is ‘homophobic or a refreshing break from political correctness’


Josh Jackman, Pink News

The BBC has sparked an angry backlash after one of its Twitter accounts asked whether Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro was “racist, sexist, homophobic or a refreshing break from political correctness?”

11) Tens of thousands in Sao Paolo take to the streets against Bolsonaro

Steve Sweeney, Morning Star

TENS of thousands of people took to the streets of Sao Paolo last night in Brazil’s first major demonstration since far-right hatemonger Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential election victory.

12) Netanyahu Will Most Likely Attend Bolsonaro's Inauguration in Brazil, Israeli Official Says

Noa Landau, Haaretz

An Israeli official said Wednesday that it is "highly probable" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will attend the inauguration of Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro on January 1.

13) Brazil: Quilombo Campo Grande suffers threats from Fascism

MST (Landless Rural Workers' Movement), Socialist Project Bullet 

We, the MST families of Southern MG, of Quilombo Campo Grande, denounce fascist action against our 20-year struggle.

14) Communists in Brazil call for unity against the rise of fascism

International Communist Press

On Sunday, fascist candidate Jair Bolsonaro won the second round of the presidential elections in Brazil by receiving 57 million votes (55% of the registered votes) while his social-democrat rival Fernando Haddad received 47 million votes. Striving for showing different aspects of the danger for a long time, communists declare their determination in continuing their resistance against the rise of fascism.

15) Brazilian social leader: 'We defeated the military dictatorship, we'll defeat Bolsonaro'

Alexandre Conceição & Federico Fuentes, Green Left Weekly

Shockwaves were sent around the world when fascist candidate Jair Bolsonaro won 55% in the second round in Brazil’s presidential elections on October 28, defeating Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party (PT).

16) Bolsonaro’s Cabinet Will Include Brazil Judge Who Convicted Lula

 Ernesto Londoño, The New York Times

The decision by the judge, Sérgio Moro, to take the helm of the Justice Ministry was met with both outrage and jubilation, a reflection of how polarizing he has become.

17) Brazil: Bolsonaro's Economy Minister Inspired by Pinochet

Telesur

Paulo Guedes, soon to be in charge of Brazil's economy, plans to take after former Chilean dictator's economic stance, crafted by the Chicago Boys.

18) Progressive Jewish leaders tell Trump he's not welcome in Pittsburgh until he denounces white nationalism

Morgan Gstalter, The Hill

A group of progressive Jewish leaders told President Trump that he is no longer welcome in Pittsburgh until he denounces white nationalism following the shooting at a synagogue there over the weekend.

19) Gab booted off the internet after Pittsburgh shooting

Tess Owen, Vice News

Hours before a shooter burst into the Tree of Life synagogue during Saturday morning Shabbat services armed with multiple guns, he’d paused to post on Gab, the alternative social media platform that’s long been accused of providing a safe online harbor for racists.

20) Trump’s Caravan Hysteria Led to This

Adam Serwer, The Atlantic

The president and his supporters insisted that several thousand Honduran migrants were a looming menace—and the Pittsburgh gunman took that seriously.

21) Naftali Bennett Seeks To Tie Synagogue Shooting To Palestinians

Judy Maltz, Forward

Naftali Bennett, Israel’s far right wing Minister of Diaspora Affairs, drew a parallel on Sunday evening between the gunman who massacred 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat morning services and Hamas militants.

22) Lost in a Week of Hateful Violence, a White Man Killed Two Black Shoppers at a Kentucky Supermarket

Democracy Now

Just days before a domestic terrorist entered a Pittsburgh synagogue and shot 11 worshipers dead, a white man gunned down two elderly African-American customers at a Kentucky grocery store Wednesday in what many are calling a hate crime. Fifty-one-year-old Gregory Bush opened fire and killed Maurice Stallard and Vickie Lee Jones at a Kroger supermarket in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, shortly after trying to enter a predominantly black church. Bush reportedly then told an armed bystander that “whites don’t kill whites.” As the community mourns, we speak with Kentucky Rep. Attica Scott and Reverend Vincent James, chief of community building for the city of Louisville and pastor of Elim Baptist Church.

23) Prayer by 'Christian rabbi' at Pence event provokes backlash

Alex Johnson and Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner, NBC News

Vice President Mike Pence was roundly criticized on Monday for appearing at a campaign rally in Michigan at which a Messianic rabbi invoked Jesus in mourning the deaths of 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

24) Shooting victim’s family shuns President Trump in Pittsburgh as top officials decline to join him

Moriah Balingit ,Avi Selk and Mark Berman, The Washington Post

A mourning family doesn’t want to meet him. Leaders of his own party declined to join him. The mayor has explicitly asked him not to come. Protesters have mobilized. And yet President Trump visited this grief-stricken city Tuesday, amid accusations that he and his administration continue to fuel the anti-Semitism that inspired Saturday’s massacre inside a synagogue.

25) Who’s to Blame for Political Violence? The Terror Starts at the Top, Trickles Down

Ted Rall


There are no eye sockets big enough for the eye-rolling I want to do when I hear American politicians express shock at political violence like the last week’s domestic terror trifecta: a racist white man murdered two blacks at a Kentucky grocery store, a white right-winger stands accused of mailing more than a dozen pipe bombs to Democratic politicians and celebrities, and a white anti-Semite allegedly gunned down 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

26) The Israeli government is exploiting the Pittsburgh murders to try to demonize Palestine solidarity

 Adam Horowitz, Mondoweiss

Yesterday during an interview on MSNBC, Ron Dermer, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, placed the blame for the attack on both white supremacists and the “radical left,” which is clearly code for BDS activists.

27) After Pittsburgh Massacre, Netanyahu Faces Backlash for Endorsing Trump and Smearing Soros

Robert Mackey, The Intercept

AS HE MOURNED for the 11 American Jews killed on Saturday by a gunman who believed a racist conspiracy theory promoted by the president of the United States, the writer David Simon read on Twitter that a senior member of Israel’s far-right government was on his way to Pittsburgh for a memorial service.

28) Trump shocks with racist new ad days before midterms

Stephen Collinson, CNN

In the most racially charged national political ad in 30 years, President Donald Trump and the Republican Party accuse Democrats of plotting to help people they depict as Central American invaders overrun the nation with cop killers.

29) Trump lit the fires of racist and right-wing terror

John Wojcik, Morning Star

The president uses the words ‘nationalist’ and ‘globalist’ in exactly the same way as the far-right terrorists carrying out the wave of recent attacks.

30) American Jews May Never Forgive Israel for Its Reaction to the Pittsburgh Massacre

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz

Over the past week, American Jews expected comfort and support. Instead, Israeli government officials offered carefully honed political talking points, choosing Trump over them.

31) Image at NSCC Early Childhood Education classroom reflects centuries of negative stereotypes of Black women

El Jones, Halifax Examiner

It is precisely because this kind of depiction of Black women is so common that this imagery becomes invisible, and can grace the hallways of a place of higher education. It doesn’t have to be the case that whoever created this image did so with the intent of harming Black women or that they necessarily recognized the racial stereotypes underlying this representation. Focusing discussion on whether the person who made is “is racist” rather than why this imagery persists and its effect of Black people ignores the systemic issues Fells identifies that affect how Black people are treated in schools and in wider society.

32) Germany's Angela Merkel Says She Won't Seek Re-Election, Will Leave Party Role

Bill Chappell, NPR

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she will step down from leading the Christian Democratic Union and won't seek re-election, rattling the political scene in Germany and setting the stage for her to eventually be replaced in her country's highest office.

33) Oil Companies Are Pouring Money Into Two States To Kill Proposed Environmental Rules

Zahra Hirji, BuzzFeed

Environmentalists who want to pass new regulations on oil and gas sites in Colorado have raised about $1 million. Their oil industry opponents have raised more than $35 million.

34) Where is the unions’ inspiration in the fight against Doug Ford?

John Clarke, Briarpatch 

As Doug Ford’s Tories mount a class war against workers and communities in Ontario, a fight back is underway. The Fight for $15 and Fairness is challenging Ford’s cancellation of both a minimum wage increase and vital legislative improvements to workers’ rights. Multiple protesters – including a woman in her 70s – have been handcuffed and removed from the public gallery of the legislature as they denounced the Tory effort to turn Toronto’s city council into a docile tool for the implementation of their agenda. Tens of thousands of high school students walked out to decry Ford’s bigoted assault on curricula. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is working with allies to fight an impending right-wing “welfare reform” designed to fuel a desperate scramble for the worst jobs.

35) Trump’s NLRB Just Quietly Ruled to Make Union Pickets Illegal

Moshe Z. Marvit,  IN THESE TIMES

The NLRB based its decision on a particularly onerous provision in federal labor law that prohibits employees from engaging in boycotts, pickets or other activities that are aimed at a secondary employer.

36) Basic income cancellation heads to court in January

CBC News

The legal action is on two fronts — asking the province to overturn cancelling the project, and a class action lawsuit for breach of contract. The first will be in divisional court in Oshawa on Jan. 25.

37) These are some of the most racist political ads of 2018

Matt Laslo, Vice News

When President Trump rallies his base by demonizing the “migrant caravan,” he’s continuing an American tradition that dates to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1789, which forced the mostly European immigrants to wait an extra nine years before being allowed to vote.

38) The unseen driver behind the migrant caravan: climate change

Oliver Milman, Emily Holden and David Agren, The Guardian 

While violence and poverty have been cited as the reasons for the exodus, experts say the big picture is that changing climate is forcing farmers off their land – and it’s likely to get worse.

39) Trump eyeing executive order to end citizenship for children born in U.S. to noncitizens

John Wagner, The Washington Post

President Trump is planning to sign an executive order that would seek to end the right to U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States to non-citizens, a move most legal experts say runs afoul of the Constitution.

40) Bolton praises Bolsonaro while declaring ‘troika of tyranny’ in Latin America

Julian Borger, The Guardian

Bolton hailed Brazilian president-elect a ‘positive sign’ as he announced new sanctions against Venezuela and Cuba.

41) Daughter of Slain Environmentalist Connects Migrant Caravan to Honduran Government's Failures

KQED News

The last time Bertha Zúñiga visited San Francisco from her native Honduras was in April 2015, when she watched her mother, Berta Cáceres, walk onstage in a glittery gown to receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental prize, also dubbed the Green Nobel.

42) The Brutal Normality of Switzerland’s Sex Market

Julie Bindel, Truthdig

For all that Switzerland presents itself on the international stage as progressive and humanitarian, its disregard of the human rights abuses being perpetrated every day against prostituted women is nothing short of a disgrace.

43) Temporary worker’s death prompts concerns about Ford government labour bill

City News

The death of a temporary worker last week at a loading dock in North York has some opposition MPPs questioning the Ford government’s commitment to workplace safety.

44) Evidence Mounts Raising the Minimum Wage Does Not Cost Jobs

The Real News Network

The increase in service industry jobs since Seattle enacted a $15 minimum wage is another nail in the coffin of the big business argument that raising it reduces employment.

45) 60% of world's wildlife has been wiped out since 1970

Emily Chung · CBC News

Well over half the world's population of vertebrates, from fish to birds to mammals, have been wiped out in the past four decades, says a new report from the World Wildlife Fund.

46) Across Canada, caribou are on course for extinction, a prominent expert warns. What happens after that?

Ivan Semeniuk, The Globe and Mail

Caribou, the iconic herbivore that graces the back of the Canadian quarter, is on a pathway to extinction in every region where it is currently found, says one of the country’s foremost experts on the species.

47) What would it cost to clean up Alberta’s oilpatch? $260 billion, a top official warns

Various, The Toronto Star

Cleaning up the Alberta oilpatch could cost an estimated $260 billion, internal regulatory documents warn.

(Related: Trudeau's "progressive" farcical climate change hypocrisy continues)

48) 200 years of hot air

Shane Quinn, Morning Star

The Earth’s been heating up for almost two centuries, but the elite has hidden the evidence.

49) 'It's like a cult': how sexual misconduct permeates the world of ballet

Alexandra Villarreal, The Guardian

The #MeToo movement has slowly started to have an effect on the men who’ve abused their position with ballet dancers but there’s still a long way to go.

50) Google Employees Around The World Are Walking Out To Protest Sexual Misconduct

Various, BuzzFeed

Google employees are staging walkouts at offices around the world to protest gender inequality and a company culture that has tolerated and protected executives accused of sexual misconduct.

51) 'You can't erase us': in Silicon Valley, Google workers share assault stories

Lauren Hepler and Sam Levin, The Guardian

After a day of global protests, employees at Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters added their voices to calls for major change to company policies on gender pay equity and sexual misconduct.

52) Cuban solidarity in Haiti

Nuria Barbosa León, Granma

The Cuban medical brigade in Haiti once again provided this people with timely help after an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale struck at 8:11 p.m., October 6, perceptible throughout the country.

53) The US blockade of Cuba is getting worse

Ollie Hopkins, Morning Star

It is expected that once again only Israel and the US will vote in favour of the blockade, but this year, under Trump, things are much worse than that.

54) Merck Pulls Out Of Agreement To Supply Life-Saving Vaccine To Millions Of Kids

Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR

The pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc. is ending a long-term agreement to supply a lifesaving vaccine for children in West Africa.

55) UN report: San Francisco's 'cruel and inhuman' homelessness crisis is a human rights violation

Aria Bendix, Business Insider

The Bay Area's "cruel and inhuman" conditions for homeless residents violate a number of human rights, according to a report written by United Nations Special Rapporteur Leilani Farha.

56) Israeli embassy staff accused of spying on US students who support Palestinians' human rights

Steve Sweeney, Morning Star


ISRAELI embassy staff have been accused of spying on students supporting Palestinian rights and smearing activists by claiming they carried out an anti-semitic attack at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis).

57) Yemen: Amal Hussain, whose image drew attention to famine, dies

Al Jazeera

Amal Hussain, a seven-year-old girl whose image in the New York Times last week brought new attention to the thousands upon thousands of children suffering the dire consequences of Yemen's devastating war, has died, according to the newspaper.

58) Far-right group Proud Boys banned from Facebook, Instagram

The Associated Press

The far-right group the Proud Boys and its founder, Gavin McInnes, have been banned from Facebook and Instagram because of policies against hate groups.


59) Venezuela: Communist Campesino Leaders Assassinated as Land Struggles Continue

Ricardo Vaz, Venezuela Analysis

 Two campesino leaders and members of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) were assassinated on Wednesday in Nueva Bolivia, Merida State.

60) I live among the neo-Nazis in eastern Germany. And it’s terrifying

Anonymous, The Guardian

Media coverage of racist riots in the east German city of Chemnitz earlier this year showed just the tip of the iceberg: what lurks beneath the surface remains hidden.

61) Rampant Welfare Fraud Is A Myth Ontario PCs Have Used To Vilify The Poor

Alexi White, The Huff Post

Any day now, Ontario Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod will release her promised reform plan for social assistance. Given the new Ford government has already rolled back recent social assistance enhancements and ended the basic income pilot, it seems likely that further cuts will be announced.

62) Could Victorian Socialists be about to make history?

Felix Dance, Green Left Weekly

Australia has not had a socialist parliamentarian, at the state or federal level, since the 1940s. But this may change at the November 24 Victorian state election.

63) The sailors that ended the First World War

John Westmoreland, Counterfire

As Remembrance Day approaches, John Westmoreland highlights the vital role played by revolutionary sailors.

64) 49ers cheerleader takes a knee during anthem before Raiders game

Jason Owens, Yahoo Sports

A San Francisco 49ers cheerleader took a knee during the national anthem prior to Thursday’s game against the Oakland Raiders.

65) Tallahassee Yoga Shooter Was A Far-Right Misogynist Who Railed Against Women And Minorities Online

David Mack, Amber Jamieson and Julia Reinstein, BuzzFeed

The man who shot and killed two women at a yoga studio in Tallahassee, Florida, on Friday before killing himself was a far-right extremist and self-proclaimed misogynist who railed against women, black people, and immigrants in a series of online videos and songs.

See also: Bolsonaro and Fascism in Brazil, Honduran Migrants, Ford Attacks Workers & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos October 21 - 28

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