Felt Recoil

A weekly conversation about politics, guns, gear and the great outdoors.

[Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger]

BRAZIL IS ON THE BRINK

I’m reporting to you from Brazil, where a dramatic series of events are underway.

At 5:52 pm Eastern Time, today, April 6, 2024, X corporation, formerly known as Twitter, announced that a Brazilian court had forced it to “block certain popular accounts in Brazil.”

Then, less than one hour later, the owner of X, @ElonMusk announced that X would defy the court’s order, and lift all restrictions.

“As a result,” said Musk, “we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit.”

At any moment, Brazil’s Supreme Court could shut off all access to X/Twitter for the people of Brazil.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Brazil is on the brink of dictatorship at the hands of a totalitarian Supreme Court Justice named Alexandre de Moraes.

President Lula da Silva is participating in the push toward totalitarianism. Since taking office, Lula has massively increased government funding of the mainstream news media, most of which are encouraging increased censorship.

What Lula and de Moraes are doing is an outrageous violation of Brazil’s constitution and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

At this moment, Brazil is not yet a dictatorship. It still has elections and the Brazilian people have other means at their disposal to confront authoritarianism.

But the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior Electoral Court are directly interfere in those elections through censorship.

Three days ago I published the Twitter Files for Brazil. They show that Moraes has violated the Brazilian Constitution. Moraes illegally demanded that Twitter reveal private information about Twitter users who used hashtags he considered inappropriate. He demanded access to Twitter's internal data, violating the platform's policy. He censored, on his own initiative and without any respect for due process, posts on Twitter by parliamentarians from the Brazilian Congress. And Moraes tried to turn Twitter's content moderation policies into a weapon against supporters of then-president Jair Bolsonaro.

I say this as an independent and non-partisan journalist. I'm not a fan of either Bolsonaro or Trump. My political views are very moderate. But I know censorship when I see it.

The Twitter Files also revealed that Google, Facebook, Uber, WhatsApp and Instagram betrayed the people of Brazil. If such evidence is proven, the executives of these companies behaved like cowards: they provided the Brazilian government with personal registration data and telephone numbers without a court order and, therefore, violating the law.
When Twitter refused to provide Brazilian authorities with private user information, including direct messages, the government attempted to sue Twitter's top Brazilian lawyer.

When I lived in Brazil in 1992, I was very left-wing. At the time, Lula and the PT's slogans were “Without fear of being happy”.

In recent days, I have spoken to dozens of Brazilians, including professors, journalists and respected lawyers. Everyone tells me they are shocked by what is happening. They told me that they are afraid to speak their mind and that the Lula government is complicit in creating this climate of fear.

Brazil belongs to the Brazilians. It is not my country. As such, there are limits to what I am capable of doing.

But I can say things that many Brazilians do not feel safe saying: Alexandre de Moraes is a tyrant. And the only way to deal with tyrants is to confront them. It is up to Brazil’s senators to confront the tyrant. And it is up to the people of Brazil to demand that their senators do so.

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

@RealPizzaPepe We all see the humor in claiming there’s no aliens in Miami, right? Sure, maybe there’s nobody from outer space, but there’s millions of aliens.

[Juanita Broaddrick @atensnut]

After Bill Clinton viciously raped me - he said,

“Don’t worry, I’m sterile due to mumps when I was a boy.”

Then he told me, “You’d better put some ice on that,” pointing to my swollen and bleeding lip.

There are good men…….
and then there’s Bill Clinton.

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

@JackPosobiec Oh. Okay. He manslaughtered him. Got it.

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

@dom_lucre Only in the sense that one shouldn’t be out in front like that. Otherwise, good to see!

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

#StopAsianHate

[Ian Miles @ianmiles]

Absolutely effing disgusting. https://t.co/8fGvlp3vKd

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

Let them know what you think:

[Everytown @Everytown]

𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐥: 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬?
We need 15,000 responses by midnight, but we haven't heard from YOU. Tell us now: Should Congress ban assault weapons?

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

@Everytown Why are you not showing the results?

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

@mchooyah Waiting to watch Obama kill Bin Laden?

[Brigitte Gabriel @ACTBrigitte]

Stop sending money to Ukraine.

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

@greggutfeld The People’s Show!

[Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec]

🐸🐸🐸

[Robert J. O'Neill @mchooyah]

If we don’t need AR-15’s, why does the IRS?

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

@AnnLesbyPhD Stop. Grooming. Children.

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

@Wendys “Arrested…in 2013…charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault & resisting arrest. 2016: charged with aggravated criminal trespass, aggravated assault, evading arrest. 2019: charged with harassment and again with aggravated assault.” https://t.co/cWKxZy2xXw

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

Who’s going to tell @jonstewart and @GruntStyle1SG they have to apologize to @tedcruz for how wrong they were about the budget tricks on the PACT Bill? Passed WITH AN AMENDMENT.

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

BREAKING via Project Veritas #FBILeaks https://t.co/Jx14WSKzaD

[Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec]

BREAKING Via Project Veritas: FBI Whistleblower LEAKS Bureau’s Domestic Terrorism Symbols Guide on 'Militia Violent Extremists’ Citing Ashli Babbitt

Document references The Second Amendment, Gadsden Flag, Revolutionary War Imagery, & The Betsy Ross Flag

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

It’s incredible. #TerminalList

[Jack Carr @JackCarrUSA]

We did not make THE TERMINAL LIST for film critics.
•
We made it for those in the arena.
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Enjoy the ride!
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#TheTerminalList

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

@bennyjohnson Which is exact why we aren’t a democracy. Our Republic is a guard against majority tyranny and mob rule.

[Felt Recoil @FeltRecoilShow]

@greg_price11 Let’s assume it’s true that he said, “Let me repeat the line.” When, in the entire history of humanity, has anyone ever actually said those words? Wouldn’t they just say, “let me say that again” or “Let me repeat that” and then actually say it again?