The Supreme Court knocks on your door
I am staring at my computer screen – not a paper sheet, as I would like – debating on what to write about, since the number of topics of interests, each on more horrendous than the other, is so immense, that only Shakespeare can help me find the right topic to discuss! What kind of Brazil is this? What kind of people, what kind of public servants are willing to sabotage the progress of a Country on a daily basis? As Horacio said to Hamlet, “But this is wondous strange”. You think, Horacio? Should I instead write about the 10 plagues of Egypt that hit Rio de Janeiro; about the mishaps of our Government; the Brumadinho tragedy; or the pornographic, Steve Bannon friend’s, Olavo de Carvalho? What am I supposed to talk about? AH! I know! I will talk about freedom! Freedom of expression! Humanity’s biggest treasure! Our greatest gift! Without it we are nothing!
I confess, from the bottom of my heart, I am scared that a Process Server might knock on my door and take my computer and smartphone with the accusation that I threatened one, two or three of gods of our Supreme Court! The censorship towards the website “O Antagonista”, the magazine “Crusoé” and the search warrant to the homes of seven Brazilians, including a general, which we are seeing as just censorship is, in fact, a cruel, authoritarian and anti-democratic form of intimidation, with the intent to silence the population! “Do what those reporters did, criticize the members of the Supreme Court, and you will have your homes invaded by us, The Government”. This was the message sent by our Chief Justice, Dias Toffoli and Justice Alexandre de Moraes (no surprise there) to the Brazilian people.
The applied censorship lasted a short time. Four days! But the message was sent! The Country is worried. I have my doubts if both, Toffoli and Alexandre de Moraes, did not previously calculate that their arbitrary and unconstitutional act would not be rejected by their Supreme Court peers, the press and the general population! I am sure that a lot of the critics in the social media of a few Supreme Court Justices (everyone knows who they are and I am not mentioning names due to fear of retaliation!), are scared with what might happen to them! Not that hundreds of thousands of people have not rejected the cruel attack coming from the President of the Supreme Court, and from the even much respected former Federal Prosecutor, Alexandre de Moraes!
The intimidation attempt backfired! The level of negative attrition towards both Justices reached its peak, bordering a demoralizing level! I am sure they felt the heat! The comments from Celso de Melo were devastating – There is no democracy without freedom of expression, and that both Justices promoted censorship! Not to mention the comment from the former Supreme Court Justice, Carlos Veloso and the ever assertive and brilliant, Ayres de Brito, who strongly condemned those actions.
Thus, I will wrap up with Shakespeare, citing Macbeth who, after committing innumerous arbitrary and criminal acts when in the Scottish throne, realizes that “Is a tale told by an idiot, full of sounds and fury…signifying nothing”. It is not my intention to cite any of the Justices as idiots, I care for my physical integrity! But this was an act full of Sound and Fury, with no positive outcome for the Supreme Court. It was! Now, it has to stop!