Like, Comment, And Vote | The Mail Attacks Continue | No Longer Have The Right To Buy Arms

Like, Comment, And Vote: With all the ink that’s been spilled writing about Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, not a lot of attention has been paid to another rather striking phenomenon happening there. 20 somethings are winning seats in Brazil’s state and federal elections by leveraging their huge YouTube audiences. Traditional legislators don’t get it. One young newly-elected state representative said: “I guarantee YouTubers in Brazil are more influential than politicians.” Another says: “Other city councillors kind of fear me because most of them don’t understand the power of social networks.” Kim Kataguiri, 22, absolutely understands. He’s the youngest person ever elected to Congress in Brazil, and he has his YouTube channel, memes, fake news, and the army of supporters for his organization—Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL), the Free Brazil Movement—to thank for it.

Kataguiri didn’t set out to be a political movement; he maintains MBL is really just a bunch of young people who love free market economics and memes. The whole thing started when Kataguiri was in his last year of high school and his teacher started a debate about welfare programs in Brazil. He began googling and discovered Ron Paul and the Brazilian libertarian, YouTuber Daniel Fraga. Kataguiri said “I did a video to my teacher and my friends at school to talk about what I had found out. There was one problem: I posted this video on YouTube. So it was public and it went viral.” People kept asking for more videos, so he googled some more and made more videos about what he’d found out. His channel got bigger. He started connecting with other far-right and libertarian YouTubers, and Brazil’s libertarian community started connecting on Facebook. Then in 2013 Ron Paul visited Brazil, and suddenly the online community became a real-life one.

So began MBL, Kataguiri’s digital network. By 2015, at age 19, Kataguiri’s videos were drawing huge audiences; Time Magazine named him one of the 30 most influential teenagers of that year. Facebook had been the group’s main hub, and for three days in 2016 they managed to outperform Donald Trump. But concerns over News Feed algorithm changes, and Facebook’s banning of MBL pages this summer, have necessarily caused diversification. Now besides the three million Facebook followers, there are about 300,000 Twitter followers and maybe a half million on Instagram. The group is currently supporting Bolsonaro, not because MBL members love the far-right wave that’s running through Brazil, but because Bolsonaro has been good for media traffic.

Dangerous Health Scare In India: An outbreak of the Zika virus has occurred in the Indian city of Jaipur, a perennially popular tourist destination known for its rose-colored palaces and buildings. Approximately 135 people have been infected, including 40 pregnant women. The director of the National Institute for Malaria Research in Delhi said until this outbreak Indian health authorities had “never found [Zika] positive mosquitoes.” Now they have, and it is concerning health professionals. The virus causes mild symptoms like fever, rashes and aches in healthy adults, but when the virus infects pregnant women, particularly in their first trimester, it has been linked to serious birth defects. (WaPo)

One Big Game Of Telephone And We All Lose: President Trump is apparently unhappy about US safeguards in place for official calls made to and from the White House, so he has been using his personal cell phone to sidestep the requirements. He’s continued the practice despite repeated warnings from intelligence and other administration officials that his calls are not secure. So officials, who insisted on anonymity, told the New York Times that the Chinese and Russians had managed to eavesdrop on Trump’s calls, perhaps in an effort to get the president to take the warnings seriously. Thursday a spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was enjoying the flap, mocking the article as she answered reporters’ questions. She even plugged a Chinese competitor to the iPhones Trump prefers. (NYT)

Berlin Wall Street Scam: For the past decade Germany has been investigating a monumental tax fraud scheme known as the “cum-ex scandal” in which banks and stockbrokers rapidly traded shares with (“cum”) and without (“ex”) dividend rights, while concealing the identity of the actual owner, thereby allowing both parties to claim tax rebates on capital gains tax that had only been paid once. The scheme had cost the country billions; it was assumed a 2016 change in the law had successfully outlawed such trades. But new reports last week from a cross-border and undercover investigation now show the trade is still flourishing, at least 10 other European countries have been affected by the tax fraud practices, and the financial damage to state treasuries could reach $63.4 billion. (#CumExFiles)

– “China’s hidden camps: What’s happened to the vanished Uighurs of Xinjiang?” (BBC)

– “The Caravan Is a Challenge to the Integrity of U.S. Borders: If Trump’s opponents stand opposed to policing America’s boundaries, they will not help immigrants—they will only lose votes.” (Atlantic)

No Longer Have The Right To Buy Arms: Thursday’s non-binding resolution by the European Parliament, which condemned the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and urged a European Union-wide arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, came two days after Germany became the first Western government to halt arms sales to Riyadh. The US is the largest source of Saudi weapons, followed by Britain and France; the latter two countries have both issued scathing condemnations of the journalist’s murder, but as yet neither has followed Germany’s example. President Trump has made clear on numerous occasions he intends to preserve America’s lucrative contracts to sell arms to the Saudis.

The European Parliament is an assembly of 751 elected officials from the 28 EU member states. Thursday’s resolution rejected “the explanations provided so far by the Saudi authorities on the matter as lacking credibility.” It went on to say the October 2 torture and killing of the Washington Post contributing columnist and Saudi national is “part of a pattern of a widespread crackdown against prominent human rights defenders, women activists, lawyers, journalists, writers and bloggers” in Saudi Arabia after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) began assuming control of the country’s security apparatus.

Earlier this week Khashoggi’s eldest son, Salah, was summoned to receive MbS’s condolences on his father’s death. The resulting photo of an ashen-faced Salah shaking the hand of the man widely believed to have ordered the elder Khashoggi’s murder struck a chord with millions world-wide. Salah, who holds dual US-Saudi citizenship and previously had been prevented from leaving the country, was allowed to depart Wednesday, presumably for the US. Early Thursday a Saudi prosecutor said new information from Turkey indicated the journalist’s death was premeditated, an acknowledgment that contradicted several previous claims that Khashoggi had been accidently killed and his death covered up by rogue operatives.

The Mail Attacks Continue: More suspicious packages have been found in the New York City area and federal authorities have expanded their nationwide search for whoever is responsible for sending them. The FBI said it was possible more such packages could be moving through the mail. Devices in the packages appeared to be pipe bombs, but the white powder found was said to be “not biological.” The packages were sent primarily to Democratic opponents of President Trump. (NPR)

It’s My Party, I Can Cry If I Want To: This is embarrassing. President Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon apparently wanted to resurrect his vanished importance (or obscure his prominent position in Bob Woodward’s recent book), so he thrust himself back into the political melee by attempting to campaign for Republican candidates in New York. Unfortunately an event in Staten island Monday drew a crowd of just 38 people. Bannon had a better showing outside a firehouse in Elma when 200 people came, but instead of praising area Republicans who were running in the midterms, Bannon spent half his time touting his own role in Trump’s success. Oh, and none of the actual candidates themselves actually ever showed up. (Guardian)

– “Five of the most bigoted and divisive political ads from the 2018 midterms: From calling a Muslim school ‘Terror High’ to claiming Democrats want to ‘lynch black folks’, the upcoming election has seen a large number of race-baiting and prejudiced ads” (Guardian)

– “How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the ‘Father of Android’: The internet giant paid Mr. Rubin $90 million and praised him, while keeping silent about a misconduct claim.” (NYT)

– “Stephen King sells film rights for story to Welsh teenagers for $1: Horror writer lets Blaenau Gwent Film Academy make version of Stationary Bike” (Guardian)

– “What Happens After You Become the ‘Most Famous Undocumented Immigrant in America’: In his memoir, the journalist Jose Antonio Vargas attempts to tell the story of his own life while recognizing that he’s often viewed as a voice for millions.” (Atlantic)

– “The Underestimated Cerebellum Gains New Respect From Brain Scientists: “We think that the cerebellum is acting as the brain’s ultimate quality control unit,” says Scott Marek, a postdoctoral research scholar and the study’s first author.” (NPR)

– “Shrinking the world: why we can’t resist model villages: In these baffling times, the only way to gain control of our environment is to miniaturise it.” It’s a small, small world. (Guardian)

– “When Crime Is a Family Affair: Kids have a habit of imitating their parents’ criminal behavior. It’s no wonder, then, that by one measure, 10 percent of families account for two-thirds of criminals.” (Atlantic)

– “Google Is Teaching Children How to Act Online. Is It the Best Role Model?: The tech giant is positioning itself in schools as a trusted authority on digital citizenship at a moment when the company’s data-handling practices are under growing scrutiny.” (NYT)

– “The AI Cold War With China That Could Doom Us All” (Wired)

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