OK, Charles, What Was it? The Best of Times Or the Worst of Times?

It couldn’t have been both, right?

Well, maybe.  While extreme right-wing forces are gaining strength in many places around the world, the free press, the only mechanism preventing would-be autocrats from rising to power, has enjoyed a few good moments recently.  In particular, we see that the Supreme Court of Brazil has told newly elected neo-fascist president Jair Bolsonaro that he cannot use the criminal justice system to harass and threaten to imprison journalist Glenn Greenwald (pictured above), co-founder of online news publication The Intercept. As a reporter, Greenwald’s job is to expose things like the way Brazil’s election was manipulated, starting with the imprisonment of the likely victor, Lula da Silva, who was far ahead in the polls, sentencing him to 25 years, not allowing him to make public statements, effectively silencing him before the election.

That there exists any presence of fairness and honesty in Brazil should be considered very good news indeed.

The age of wisdom or the age of foolishness? Guess we’ll see.