#241 | The Perfect Storm: COVID-19, Brazil, & The Maniac At The Helm w/ Brian Mier
Intro: 13:45 | Book Pre-sale
In this episode, I speak with Brian Mier, journalist and co-editor at Brasil Wire and correspondent for teleSUR English.
I ask Brian to discuss the current political situation in Brazil under far right president Jair Bolsonaro, as the nation begins to reel from the coronavirus pandemic and the wholly inadequate, and frankly psychopathic, response from President Bolsonaro. The editors at Brasil Wire starkly condemned the Brazilian president in their recent article ‘Bolsonaro and Coronavirus: A Tragedy Foretold’:
“In the past weeks, as the scale of the pandemic was already clear to the world, we have heard from Bolsonaro, his allies and his supporters that Coronavirus is a hoax, “communist”, and a “little flu”. These messages are spread on social media and invisibly on the WhatsApp platform, which was infamously the primary channel used to deliver him votes at the 2018 election. Such as sustained flow of disinformation to discourage public safety has extremely disturbing implications. The population is being encouraged to endanger itself.” (https://bit.ly/2WWAAIG)
Brian Mier is co-editor at Brasil Wire and correspondent for teleSur English's news program From the South, and is the author/co-editor with Daniel Hunt of ‘Year of Lead: Washington, Wall Street and the New Imperialism in Brazil.’
Episode Notes:
- Read ‘Bolsonaro and Coronavirus: A Tragedy Foretold’ at Brasil Wire: https://bit.ly/2WWAAIG
- Read Brian’s article ‘São Paulo: Perfect Storm for Covid-19’ at Brasil Wire: https://bit.ly/2ydhbc6
- I referenced the article ‘Brazil bangs pots and pans to protest’ from The Hindu: https://bit.ly/2wNJAVY
- Follow Brasil Wire, teleSUR English, and Brasil de Fato for updates on Brazil: http://www.brasilwire.com / https://www.telesurenglish.net / https://www.brasildefato.com.br/english
- Support Brian’s work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/brianmier
- The song featured in this episode is “👑” by Knxwledge: https://youtu.be/_WJWcyo2qwE
- The photo featured is by Andre Borges: https://bit.ly/2UvNMTj
