RE: The Latin American Report # 218 (Lula vs. Elon Musk: Round 1)

"...it seems to me that Shellenberger is too hasty in defining as "unconstitutional" some demands of the Brazilian justice system."

Could be. I have not read the Brazilian Constitution, and have no grasp of it's specifics. However, what I read above in your post, that Moraes claims Brazil is somehow endangered by Brazilian people speaking forthrightly, is blatantly and obviously false. Corruption cannot continue to mislead, oppress, and steal if free people are able to speak forthrightly, and where there are disagreements is where there is most need for discussion in order that the reasons for disagreement can be examined and discutants judge for themselves whether those bases are rational and true.

Whenever some party demands to determine for others what the truth is, that party is most intent on misleading them, IME. Since it is ubiquitously demonstrated throughout history that when governments impose such demands and mislead people it is not long before the misled start being killed and persecuted by such governments, I have no sympathy for Moraes, or his corrupt court. The best thing for Brazil is for that corruption to be ended with all due dispatch, that the people of Brazil can resolve their issues as seems best to them and secure their felicity without delay.

"...the unprecedented raid by Ecuadorian security forces on the Aztec embassy in Quito..."

Such raids and acts of war are certainly not without precedent. We have just seen that Israel has blown up the Iranian consular residence, murdering all inside, and I have confidence many, many examples of similar acts of war can be found across history. Countries betimes wage war, and often embassies and ambassadors are the first victims when wars begin. Since Assange was arrested in the Ecuadoran embassy by permission of the Ecuadoran government, that government has shown it has no respect for the rule of law regarding embassies, and this suggests to me that AMLO has suffered this crime due to his tardiness in recognizing the criminality of the Ecuadoran administration after the coup that removed Correa from power.

It is interesting to me that Elon Musk seems to have interests in both these controversies, as my recollection is that his interest in lithium was some impetus for the coups in Ecuador and Bolivia, and his social media platform central to the Brazilian censorship scandal. Since 2014, when President Rafael Correa said, “People must prevail over capital,” Musk's fortune has increased by an order of magnitude. I account such interference, particularly when we see such men speaking out of both sides of their mouth, like Janus, as intolerably dangerous to free people, even though he may be on the side of right in the Brazilian case. Political solutions suitable to Brazil are unlikely to best be sourced from foreign billionaires, just as obviously as Ecuadoran troubles may come from that source.

Thanks!