Governo Bolsonaro aprofunda divisões políticas na sociedade (OESP)

Um presidente que constrói sua política dividindo a sociedade é algo nocivo para o país e em primeiro lugar para o funcionamento do sistema político.
Quem faz isso atua contra seus próprios interesses.

Santos Cruz critica uso de montagem com generais em convocação para ato anti-Congresso

Ex-chefe da Secretaria de Governo da Presidência da República denunciou o uso do Exército em imagem que circula em redes bolsonaristas

O Estado de S. Paulo, 25/02/2020

General Santos Cruz, demitido da chefia da Secretaria de Governo em 2019. Foto: Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom/Agência Brasil

O general Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, ex-chefe da Secretaria de Governo da Presidência da República, criticou, nesta segunda-feira, o uso do Exércitopara uma convocação de atos de rua contra o Congresso. No Twitter, ele classificou como “montagem irresponsável” o compartilhamento de fotos de quatro militares do governo acima da frase: “Fora Maia e Alcolumbre”. A montagem tem circulado em redes sociais de apoiadores do presidente Jair Bolsonaro. 

"Não confundir o Exército com alguns assuntos temporários. O uso de imagens de generais é grotesco. Manifestações dentro da lei são válidas." Minutos antes, o general havia postado um texto diferente, em que não citava a palavra "montagem" e afirmava: "Confundir o Exército com alguns assuntos temporários de governo, partidos políticos e pessoas é usar de má fé, mentir, enganar a população." 

A convocação para o protesto ganhou força semana passada, após o ministro do Gabinete de Segurança Institucional (GSI), Augusto Heleno, dizer, durante uma reunião que teve o áudio vazado, que Bolsonaro não deve ceder a “chantagens” do Congresso. Ele também afirmou que o presidente deveria “convocar o povo às ruas”. Heleno é um dos generais que aparecem na montagem, ao lado do vice-presidente Hamilton Mourão e do deputado federal General Peternelli. 

General Santos Cruz

✔@GenSantosCruz

MONTAGEM IRRESPONSÁVEL
Exército - instituição de Estado, defesa da pátria e garantia dos poderes constitucionais, da lei e da ordem. Não confundir o Exército com alguns assuntos temporários. O uso de imagens de generais é grotesco.
*Manifestaçôes dentro da lei são válidas.

1,793

10:21 PM - Feb 24, 2020

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Na reunião do último dia 18, Heleno estava irritado com a possibilidade de o Congresso derrubar vetos do governo Bolsonaro, entre eles o orçamento impositivo. Segundo ele, as "insaciáveis reivindicações" de parlamentares por fatias do Orçamento prejudicam a atuação do Executivo e vão contra os preceitos de um regime presidencialista. 

A fala de Heleno provocou a resposta de parlamentares. O presidente da Câmara, Rodrigo Maia (DEM) qualificou o chefe do GSI como "radical ideológico". O presidente do Senado, Davi Alcolumbre (DEM-AP), também criticou o comentário de Heleno. “Nenhum ataque à democracia será tolerado pelo Parlamento", afirmou.

O mundo se cansou de Trump, e não espera nada dos Democratas - David Ignatius

Analysis & Opinions 

The Rest of the World is Preparing for Four More Years of Trump

• David Ignatius
 

The Washington Post, Feb. 20, 2020

Many commentators have argued that the big winner in Wednesday’s poisonous Democratic Party debate was President Trump. But as the world assesses the United States in this 2020 election season, the long-term political beneficiaries may be foreign rivals such as China’s President Xi Jinping.

The circular firing squad in Las Vegas probably raised expectations abroad that the Democrats won’t unite behind a candidate with wide popular appeal who can beat Trump. People throughout Eastern Europe and Asia who have struggled to escape from socialism must find Sen. Bernie Sanders’s enthusiasm for it — and the fact that the Vermont independent is leading the field — especially bizarre.

The Democrats’ lack of interest in the world will also be noted. Foreign policy was barely mentioned in Las Vegas. As the candidates shouted at each other, they seemed unaware that voters would be judging them in part on their fitness to be commander in chief. Rather than discuss rational global climate policies, such as a carbon tax, they talked about putting U.S. energy executives in jail.

But the world moves on. If a sensible, moderate Democrat seems unlikely to emerge from the scrum, then U.S. allies and adversaries will prepare for the likelihood of four more years of the erratic, bullying, “America First” incumbent. Countries will hedge their bets, knowing that Trump’s promises are unreliable. Even for the closest U.S. allies, friendship is not a suicide pact. They will adjust, accommodate and distance.

This concern about a United States adrift from its traditional leadership role was evident last weekend at the Munich Security Conference. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke for many at the conference when he complained: “Our closest ally, the United States of America, under the current administration, rejects the very concept of the international community.”

Europeans are realizing, too, that the United States’ turn inward goes much deeper than Trump. Steinmeier bemoaned Trump’s retreat from transatlantic ties, but he recognized, “We know that this shift began a while ago, and it will continue even after this administration.”

A former top national security official in Republican and Democratic administrations summed up the implications of the U.S. political morass for foreign allies: “They understand now that waiting it out is not a good strategy. They know that the backstop is no longer there.”

Europeans feel a nostalgia for the old order, summed up in the “Westlessness” theme of the Munich conference. But there’s opportunism, too — a desire to expand influence as America’s contracts. You could see the gleam in the eye of French President Emmanuel Macron as he discussed onstage with Wolfgang Ischinger, the conference’s chairman, the possibility that Germany might soon look to France’s nuclear deterrent, rather than depending solely on U.S. pledges.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acted as though this European disaffection doesn’t exist. “I’m happy to report that the death of the transatlantic alliance is grossly overexaggerated,” he told the conference. “The West is winning, and we’re winning together.” That bland reassurance didn’t find much traction, even among Americans in the audience.

What puzzles Europeans is that the United States seems to want to have it both ways. “America wants to retrench, but it also wants to remain a hegemon and tell people what to do,” says a former senior European intelligence official. “That isn’t going to work.”

Anxiety abroad about Trump’s reelection was probably augmented by Wednesday’s announcement that he would appoint Richard Grenell, ambassador to Germany and a ferocious political loyalist, as acting director of national intelligence.

Allies worry that Grenell’s appointment signals an expanding campaign to control the intelligence community and retaliate against Trump’s perceived enemies. If allies decide that a second-term Trump will compromise the independence and professionalism of U.S. intelligence agencies, they may begin to reconsider their liaison relationships.

Who benefits in a world where Republicans trumpet “America First” and Democrats don’t even debate foreign policy? The answer is painfully obvious to foreign officials. As the United States retreats, China steps forward. Since Xi’s accession in 2013, China has advertised its plans to dominate global technology and business.

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper talked in Munich of making the world choose between being America’s technology partner or China’s. But he isn’t going to like the answer: Even Britain, the United States’ closest ally, has said it plans to continue its relationship with Huawei, China’s flagship technology company.

The Democrats seemed poised on the edge of a cliff Wednesday night, heading toward nomination of a candidate who could be as polarizing as Trump. Maybe the Democrats will find a way back from the brink and pick a winner. But the world is adjusting to the prospect that Trump’s version of America may be here a good while longer.  – Via The Washington Post.

For Academic Citation: Ignatius, David.“The Rest of the World is Preparing for Four More Years of Trump.”  The Washington Post, February 20, 2020. 

Venezuela: regime Maduro se mantem, situação social se deteriora (WP)

By Ishaan Tharoor with Ruby Mellen  Email Trump squeezes Venezuela’s regime, while ordinary Venezuelans go hungry Family members carry water to their home in Maracaibo, Venezuela, last year. Over a year ago, Juan Guaidó hailed himself as Venezuela’s interim president to rapturous support from much of the international community. But today the opposition leader looks no closer to dethroning President Nicolás Maduro, whose regime is firmly ensconced in Caracas even as the situation on the ground deteriorates further and whole tracts of the country are now in the grips of guerrilla groups and criminal outfits. A study published Sunday by the United Nations World Food Program found that 1 of every 3 Venezuelans are struggling or unable to meet minimum nutrition requirements because of the grim conditions created by a dysfunctional economy. The nationwide survey based on data from more than 8,000 questionnaires — and carried out with the cooperation of Maduro’s government — found that close to three-quarters of Venezuelan households have had to follow “food-related coping strategies,” including simply cutting the amount and quality of food they eat. The findings add to the already dark picture of the public health crisis reshaping what was once one of the region’s wealthiest nations. Amid reports of children with distended bellies and hunger stalking the land, some 5 million Venezuelans have left the country as refugees in an exodus that mirrors the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Syria. In an interview with Today’s WorldView, Ecuadoran President Lenín Moreno insisted that Maduro’s “despotic regime” had to go. “They have created an economic debacle in the country,” he said during a visit to Washington earlier this month. “They are starving their people to death, and they are allowing disease to spread.”  Moreno expressed confidence that it would be only a matter of time before Maduro fell. But he was more circumspect about what it would actually take to dislodge the regime. He recognized that the hemispheric bloc of nations backing Guaidó — known collectively as the Lima Group — has “important decisions” ahead of it. Guaidó, for his part, does not seem as confident. “We underestimated the ability of the regime to do bad,” Guaidó told an audience of sympathizers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January. “We are really climbing a mountain at the moment.” After the summit, he toured the United States before returning to a chaotic scene in Caracas’s main airport where his aides were set upon by Maduro supporters. “Who is weaker, and who is strong? I’m here showing my face to the people,” Guaidó said recently in a defiant interview with the Associated Press, suggesting that, while he can walk freely among Venezuelans, Maduro cannot. “I’m free.”  But he is hardly on the verge of supplanting Maduro, and his international tour, Venezuelan political commentator Francisco Toro observed, was “designed, in good part, to raise the cost to the regime of jailing him.” President Trump is reportedly frustrated with the seeming inefficacy of U.S. efforts to force Maduro out. Last week, the administration slapped new sanctions on the regime, targeting Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft, which effectively manages a significant chunk of Venezuela’s oil industry. The regime’s opponents hope that these measures, as well as efforts to choke off other sources of revenue for the regime, including illicitly smuggled gold, will make Maduro’s grip on power untenable. During his meetings this week with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump was also expected to press Modi to curb India’s reliance on Venezuelan oil imports. “The pressure is rising diplomatically and financially on the corrupt financiers and human rights violators,” Guaidó told the AP. Still, Maduro is proving resilient. A recent New York Times pieceexamined how the regime has enabled a tacit opening up of the country’s tightly controlled economy by quietly handing companies and major properties once expropriated by the state back to private operators. They are allowing “de facto capitalism in order to stave off collapse and assure [Maduro’s] continued grip on power,” noted the Times. Moscow, too, may be able to soften the blow of the new sanctions. “The Russians knew this was coming, and they’ve already started taking steps for sanctions avoidance,” Russ Dallen, a managing partner at Caracas Capital Markets, a financial and consulting firm that tracks Venezuelan oil, told my colleagues. “This is a chess game, and the Russians are good at chess.” Trump, meanwhile, has hardly been full-throated in his support for Guaidó. The president has privately grumbled about the zeal of his hawkish advisers and the overtly aggressive strategy the White House adopted last year in backing the opposition’s challenge against Maduro. Meanwhile, millions in the country struggle each day to survive. “Guaidó remains a powerful symbol of hope for Venezuelans,” wrote Toro. “But symbols alone are powerless against brutality on the scale that Venezuelans are suffering.” “Two years ago the worry was that the Maduro regime would stay in place, the economy would tank even more, health care would collapse and more and more Venezuelans would leave,” Shannon O’Neil, vice president at the Council for Foreign Relations in New York, told the Financial Times. “The worst-case scenario has happened.”

Ah, se eu estivesse na California: Mesopotamia no Getty Museum (com o Louvre)

Minhas primeiras leituras "sérias" foram sobre arqueologia na Antiguidade, sobretudo no berço da nossa civilização: a Babilônia. Lembro ainda hoje, das leituras precoces sobre o mundo antigo e as descobertas arqueológicas feitas no século XIX e início do século XX.
Essas antiguidades, roubadas, compradas, expropriadas, doadas, estão espalhadas em diversos museus no mundo, especialmente na Europa (a imperialista), nos EUA (os donos do dinheiro) e na própria região, que ainda não visitamos, eu ou Carmen Lícia. Mas já visitamos praticamente todos os museus europeus e americanos que possuem essas coleções fantásticas, e especialmente a Villa Getty, que agora organiza esta fabulosa exposição junto com o Museu do Louvre.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Wall Panel with a Striding Lion, 605–562 BC, Neo-Babylonian. Glazed ceramic. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1931 (31.13.1). Image: www.metmuseum.org

EXHIBITIONS

Statuette of a Human-Headed Bull, about 2150–2000 BC, Neo-Sumerian. Chlorite. Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités orientales. Image © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski

Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins

March 18–July 27, 2020 | The Getty Villa

Mesopotamia—the land "between the rivers" in modern-day Iraq—was home to the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Among their many achievements are the creation of the earliest known script (cuneiform), the formation of the first cities, the development of advanced astronomical and mathematical knowledge, and spectacular artistic and literary accomplishments. This exhibition covers three millennia, from the emergence of the first cities in about 3200 BC to Alexander the Great's conquest of Babylon in 331 BC.

Exhibition organized by the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins

Mesopotamia—the land "between the rivers" in modern-day Iraq—was home to the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Among their many achievements are the creation of the earliest known script (cuneiform), the formation of the first cities, the development of advanced astronomical and mathematical knowledge, and spectacular artistic and literary accomplishments. The exhibition covers three millennia from the first cities in about 3200 BC to Alexander the Great’s conquest of Babylon in 331 BC.

Exhibition organized by the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

FEATURED EXHIBITION

Mesopotamia

Civilization Begins

March 18–July 27, 2020, GETTY VILLA

Os sobressaltos da democracia brasileira - Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Os sobressaltos da democracia brasileira: mini-reflexão sobre um novo estremecimento nas frágeis instituições democráticas do Brasil

Paulo Roberto de Almeida 

‪A democracia brasileira sempre foi um experimento descontinuado nos primeiros 80 anos de regime republicano; a deterioração começou no próprio governo provisório de Deodoro, continuou no governo arbitrário de Floriano, continuou piorando sob os sistemas fraudulentos de “verificações de votos” sob os presidentes das oligarquias do período “café-com-leite”, se perverteu na “política dos governadores”, continuou se degradando nas intervenções federais nos estados - especialmente sob o Marechal Hermes da Fonseca -, e continuou sendo testada nas inúmeras intervenções de militares na política (tenentes, por vezes os altos comandos também).
Os militares continuaram se imiscuindo na política desde a última década monárquica até os anos 1970, com recrudescimentos mais brutais nos anos 1930-60, quando os altos comandos decidiram “consertar”, ou “endireitar” o país, livrando-o da corrupção, da anarquia, da “ameaça comunista” e outros males terríveis. Deu no que deu: uma ditadura que, por ter sido menos sangrenta do que certos equivalentes na região, e que procurou se cercar de “garantias jurídicas e institucionais”, não foi menos arbitrária na censura, na repressão, no obscurantismo, sem se ter agora um juízo claro sobre os níveis de corrupção.
Os militares construiram uma grande economia e ao mesmo tempo a deformaram, pelo estatismo exacerbado, pelo stalinismo industrial, pelo protecionismo mercantilista, pelo inflacionismo irresponsável e por um nacionalismo tosco, rastaquera, que isolou completamente o país da interdependência global.
Não por acaso o subtítulo do primeiro livro do mais famoso brasilianista, Thomas E. Skidmore, “Politics in Brazil, 1930-1964” (no Brasil se chamou “De Getúlio a Castelo”),
era “An Experiment in Democracy”, ou seja, uma democracia apenas tentativa.
Finalmente, quando a democracia política — que preservou desigualdades sociais — começou a se fortalecer nos 30 anos pós-1985, mesmo em meio a crises políticas graves, que nos levaram a dois impeachments (dentro de regras constitucionais), novos sinais desestabilizadores aparecem, como entre as décadas 1930-60s.
Atualmente, surge uma nova ameaça, sob a forma de um monstro miliciano-corporativo, sectário em seu direitismo tosco, sem qualquer doutrina política a sustentar um “conservadorismo” de fachada, apoiado em saudosistas da ditadura militar e em fanáticos de extrema-direita, disposto a “limpar” a sociedade de uma suposta ameaça comunista, agitando o espectro sobredimensionado do Foro de S. Paulo, uma justificativa oportunista para o avanço dos novos milicianos.
Considero o atual regime — sim, regime, não apenas governo — olavo-bolsonarista a mais grave ameaça às nossas frágeis instituições democráticas.
Nosso regime democrático, por uma série de razões — patrimonialismo, entre outras — sempre foi de baixíssima qualidade, mas agora  é o próprio governo que dinamita as bases de funcionamento do Estado de Direito, com a cooperação ingênua, inconsciente ou intencional, de representantes de núcleos corporativos e de altos mandarins da República, e ameaça novamente romper certas colunas básicas da institucionalidade democrática.
Retrocederemos novamente?‬
Não sem a minha resistência...

Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Brasília, 25 de fevereiro de 2020

200 anos da revolução liberal do Porto: colóquio em Coimbra: Call for Papers

Call for papers
Colóquio Internacional “Dois séculos da Revolução de 1820: liberalismo, anti-liberalismo e pós-liberalismo”
20 a 23 de abril de 2020
Universidade de Coimbra | Faculdade de Letras e Faculdade de Economia

A problemática delimitada resulta da adoção de uma abordagem inter-epocal e comparatista, interdisciplinar e, também, técnico-cívica dos dois séculos de soluções liberais, antiliberais e pós-liberais em Portugal e em outras zonas da Europa do Sul (antes de mais, Espanha e Itália), no Brasil e em outros países da América Latina, nos países dominantes.
Apela-se à apresentação de propostas de comunicação relativas às seguintes subáreas temáticas: Sistema político e administrativo, Estruturas e relações sociais, Pensamento económico e atividade económica, Correntes e fenómenos culturais, Relações internacionais.

Calendário:
Submissão de propostas: 29 de Fevereiro de 2020Comunicação de aceitação/recusa: 9 de Março de 2020Data limite de inscrição para comunicantes aceites: 23 de Março de 2020 
Divulgação do programa: 31 de Março de 2020

Submissão de propostas
As propostas de comunicação deverão ser submetidas por email para inscricoes.ceis20@gmail.com e obedecer às seguintes características:

Título, resumo (até 4000 carateres com espaços), 5 palavras-chave, nome do(s) autor(es), nota biográfica (até 500 carateres com espaços), enquadramento institucional e email. Duração das comunicações: 20 minutos. Publicar-se-ão textos em obras coletivas e em dossiers de revistas
Línguas de trabalho: português, castelhano, italiano e inglês 
Conferência de abertura:
Daniel Innerarity (Universidad del País Vasco)

Conferencistas convidados:
Alberto De Bernardi (Universidade de Bolonha) Américo Freire (FGV)
Angela de Castro Gomes (UNIRIO)
António Costa Pinto (ISC/UL)
Fátima Nunes (Universidade de Évora)
Francisco Martinho (USP)
Fulvio Cammarano (Universidade de Bolonha)
Héctor Hernán Mondragón Báez (Consultor do PNUD)
Hélder Adegar da Fonseca (Universidade de Évora)
Izaskun Álvarez Cuartero (USalamanca)
José Reis (UC)
Luís Lobo Fernandes (Universidade do Minho)
Marco de Nicolò (Universidade de Cassino)
Maria Antónia Lopes (UC)
Rafael García Pérez (USC, Santiago de Compostela)
Sabrina Ajmechet (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
Samuel Soares (UNESP)
Sandra Anchondo Pavón (Universidad Panamericana, Cidade do México) Vera Lúcia Vieira (PUC-SP)
Organização: DHEEAA/FLUC, FEUC, CEIS20/UC, DH/FCSH/UNL e IHC/FCSH/UNL
Parcerias: UAçores, UMadeira
Comissão Organizadora: João Paulo Avelãs Nunes, António Rafael Amaro, Maria Fernanda Rollo, Dina Sebastião, Fernando Tavares Pimenta, Sérgio Neto

Call for papers
International Colloquium “Two Centuries of the Revolution of 1820: Liberalism, Anti-Liberalism and Postliberalism”
April 20-23, 2020
University of Coimbra | Faculty of Letters and Faculty of Economics
The delimited subject results from the adoption of an inter-epochal and comparative, interdisciplinary and also technical-civic approach of the two centuries of liberal, anti-liberal and post-liberal solutions in Portugal and other areas of Southern Europe (first and foremost, Spain and Italy), in Brazil and other Latin American countries, in the dominant countries.
Communication proposals concerning the following thematic subareas are invited: Political and administrative system, Structures and social relations, Economic thinking and economic activity, Currents and cultural phenomena, International relations.
Calendar:
Submission of Proposals: February 29, 2020
Notice of Acceptance / Decline: March 9, 2020
Application deadline for accepted contacts: March 23, 2020 Dissemination of the program: March 31, 2020
Submission guidelines:
Communication proposals must be submitted by email to inscricoes.ceis20@gmail.com and comply with the following characteristics:

Title, abstract (up to 4000 characters with spaces), 5 keywords, author (s) name, biographical note (up to 500 characters with spaces), institutional framing and email. Duration of communications: 20 minutes.
Texts will be published in collective books and scientific journals.
Working languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and English. Opening Lecture:
Daniel Innerarity (Universidad del País Vasco)
Guest Lecturers:
Alberto De Bernardi (University of Bolonha) Américo Freire (FGV)
Angela de Castro Gomes (UNIRIO)
António Costa Pinto (ISC/UL)
Fátima Nunes (University of Évora)
Francisco Martinho (USP)
Fulvio Cammarano (University of Bolonha)
Héctor Hernán Mondragón Báez (UNDP Consultant)
Hélder Adegar da Fonseca (University of Évora)
Izaskun Álvarez Cuartero (Umiversity of Salamanca)
José Reis (University of Coimbra)
Luís Lobo Fernandes (University of Minho)
Marco de Nicolò (University of Cassino)
Maria Antónia Lopes (University of Coimbra)
Rafael García Pérez (USC, Santiago de Compostela)
Sabrina Ajmechet (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
Samuel Soares (UNESP)
Sandra Anchondo Pavón (Universidad Panamericana, Cidade do México) Vera Lúcia Vieira (PUC-SP)
Organization: DHEEAA / FLUC, FEUC, CEIS20 / UC, DH / FCSH / UNL and IHC/ FCSH / UNL
Partnerships: UAçores, UMadeira
Organizing Committee: João Paulo Avelãs Nunes, Antonio Rafael Amaro, Maria Fernanda Rollo, Dina Sebastião, Fernando Tavares Pimenta, Sérgio Neto

Estados Autoritários: a principal batalha é a de ideias - Democracy Digest

China launches counteroffensive in the war of ideas

Calder Walton

Democracy Digest, February 23, 2020

For China’s one party-state, the West’s promotion of liberal democracy is part of an ideological struggle led by an adversary that is still vastly superior, a situation that Chinese strategists describe as xiqiang woruo (“the West is strong, while China is weak”). The hostile forces are  liberal democratic ideals and their corollaries – constitutional democracy, universal values, individual rights, economic liberalism, free media – which have been identified by the CCP as deadly “perils,” says analyst Nadege Rolland.

In the battle for influence, the power discrepancy is not so much technological as it is about an imbalance in “discourse power”. In China’s evolving strategic lexicon, this term refers to the ability not only to articulate attractive ideas, but also to be listened to, to influence others’ perceptions, and eventually to shape the international conversation [employing what the National Endowment for Democracy [NED] calls ‘sharp power‘], she writes for the Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter:

Beijing believes the West has used its power in this domain to dominate the international system and the world order. Words are not merely instruments of communication used to facilitate exchanges and discussions; they convey concepts, ideals, and values that are the foundation for the norms on which the international architecture is constructed and thus determine how the world order is run. In sum: Whoever rules the words rules the world. In the eyes of the CCP, the West’s superior discourse power is an existential threat more imminent than the remote possibility of a foreign military invasion. RTWT

As Russia and China’s sharp power push continues to gnaw away at our societies, institutions, and alliances, Western responses are often defeatist, notes CEPA’s Edward Lucas who encountered this at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February when he presented a report – Firming up Democracy’s Soft Underbelly: Authoritarian Influence and Media Vulnerability[PDF].

“I had some specific practical ideas about how to protect our information system. But many people in the audience thought I was aiming too low. The real, essential issue was surely regulating Facebook? My response is that we need to do both,” he writes:

We certainly need big-picture, high-level responses. They come slowly, but even talking about them has a deterrent effect. We also need to take specific steps wherever we can, even at the most micro-level. For example, highlighting information attacks whenever they occur alerts other people and helps make these stunts less effective next time. Setting benchmarks for good practice gives others examples to copy.

Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, has reconstituted and updated the KGB’s old Cold War playbook for the new digital age, analyst writes in Spies, Election Meddling, and Disinformation: Past and Present, an article for the Brown Journal of World Affairs. His paper, an exercise of applied history, has two aims: first, to understand the history of Soviet disinformation, and second, to make sense of Western efforts to counter it during the Cold War. Doing so provides policy-relevant conclusions from history about countering disinformation produced by Russia and other authoritarian regimes today.

Narendra Modi prepara as suas "aldeias Potenkim" para a visita de Trump à Índia (WP)

By Joanna Slater with Ruby Mellen, The Washington Post, Feb 24, 2020  Email Trump goes to India President Trump departed for India Sunday, for a two day visit that seems set to draw crowds and controversy. On Monday, he will hold a rally in a cricket stadium in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, expected to draw some 120,000 people. Follow live coverage of Trump's visit from our reporters based in India and traveling with Trump. In the meantime, here is some coverage from The Washington Post to set the scene for the trip. A woman walks past hoardings featuring the words 'Thank You Mr. And Mrs. Trump' on a route to Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, on Feb. 23. (T. Narayan/Bloomberg) Welcomed with a wall The 49-year-old tailor has lived in this western Indian city for his entire life, but he has never seen anything quite like this. Ahead of President Trump’s visit to India, workers have descended on his modest neighborhood, resurfacing roads, laying concrete sidewalks where none existed, fixing street lamps and painting an overpass with fresh white paint. On a recent afternoon, they gingerly placed row upon row of saplings into a barren road divider. “It’s fantastic,” said Hamir Vaghela, surveying the activity around him. Trump “should come once every six months.” Trump arrives Monday for his first visit as president to the world’s largest democracy, and although he is staying for only 36 hours, the Indian government is leaving nothing to chance. The iconic Taj Mahal is being buffed and scrubbed before a sunset visit by Trump and the first lady. The world’s largest cricket stadium — so new it is not officially open — will host a rally for up to 120,000 people dubbed “Namaste Trump,” or “Hello Trump.” Other preparations are more controversial: In Ahmedabad, municipal authorities have raised a 6-foot-high, 200-yard-long wall in front of a slum along a road Trump may take near the airport. The city says the timing is a coincidence, but residents are not convinced. On earlier VIP visits, workers put up curtains on the route, they say. “Now the number one country is coming, so as per the number one standards, they built the wall,” said Vikram Rathod, 40, a laborer who lives in the slum. “They have decided that poor people should not be seen.” — Joanna Slater Read more: As Trump prepares to visit, a wall rises in India   Back to business When President Trump arrives in India on Monday, it will be his first visit to the country as an elected official. But as a business executive, Trump has connections to India that stretch back years. India is home to the largest portfolio of Trump real estate projects outside North America, according to the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., who has made repeated trips here in recent years. The ventures include four luxury residential projects and an office tower, all branded with the Trump name under licensing deals. On his last trip to India in 2014, Donald Trump partied with Bollywood stars and praised the country’s potential. “I don’t consider this as an emerging market, I think it’s an amazing market,” he said in an interview with New Delhi Television. Since then, two of Trump’s business partners in India have developed problems of their own: One is accused of massive fraud, while the other is facing a funding crunch. Both of them have close ties to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ahead of Trump’s visit, the president’s business partners were keeping a low profile. Two of them did not respond to requests for comment, and two others declined to comment. The Trump Organization did not respond to specific questions about its Indian ventures, but Trump Jr. said he was “incredibly proud” of the company’s “continued success in India.” — Niha Masih and Joanna Slater Read more: What you need to know about Trump’s business ties in India   ‘Namaste Trump’ No, the president has not suddenly discovered the meditative glow of a good yoga session. He has, however, discovered the energizing power of a good political rally, Indian-style. President Trump will almost certainly not complete a new U.S.-India trade deal during his two-day visit. The trophy agreement has been repeatedly postponed amid trade tensions. Instead, the centerpiece of the brief trip is a massive rally in Trump’s honor that his host, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has billed as “Namaste Trump.” The greeting loosely translates from Sanskrit as, “I bow to you,” which may appeal to Trump as much as the idea that the gathering Monday in Ahmedabad is expected to fill, or nearly fill, the world’s largest cricket stadium. Never mind that the projected stadium capacity is perhaps 120,000, not “millions,” as Trump has exclaimed, and that it seems a stretch to estimate that a crowd approaching the population of New York City will line the streets for his arrival. Whatever the numbers, Trump will draw a crowd that may be his largest ever. In addition to bragging rights, he hopes that popularity abroad can translate to votes back home. Although the Indian American diaspora of roughly 4.5 million people tends to vote Democratic, Trump has argued that his pro-business agenda and entrepreneurial background should be a draw. — Anne Gearan and Seung Min Kim Read more: Trump’s India trip mixes politics with policy, and offers the promise of his biggest rally yet

Nossa tortura anual: o Imposto de Renda - informações preliminares

Encaminho alguns links recebidos do amigo Airton Dirceu Lemmertz: 

Divulgadas as regras sobre a entrega da Declaração do Imposto de Renda da Pessoa Física 2020: 

http://receita.economia.gov.br/noticias/ascom/2020/fevereiro/divulgadas-regras-sobre-a-entrega-da-declaracao-do-imposto-de-renda-da-pessoa-fisica-dirpf-2020-1 

A entrevista coletiva que apresentou as regras do IRPF 2020: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLnR3QwfecI 

A entrevista com o auditor-fiscal Joaquim Adir, supervisor nacional do IR: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsNu72jGuVw 

A entrega da Declaração do Imposto de Renda 2020: início às 8 horas do dia 2 de março e termina às 23h59min59s do dia 30 de abril de 2020. 

http://receita.economia.gov.br/interface/cidadao/irpf/2020 

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