The American Trouble – 04/18/2023 – Elio Gaspari

The American government was bothered by Lula’s last lines about China and the war in Ukraine. Nine aside from the president’s improprieties, there is another issue on the chessboard — the laziness with which American diplomacy has dealt with him.

Lula went to the United States in February and the State Department organized a miserable schedule. Just compare it with the Chinese agenda. Squeezed, the two are similar, with a lot of mush and little meat. Chinese scenography, however, was Hollywood.

That, knowing that they came from Washington, and not from Beijing, the signs contrary to the coup adventures that circulated in Brasilia.

For about 50 years, there has been talk of an eventual decay of the States and it has not yet happened. Even so, strange things are happening there. After four years of Donald Trump, the country is governed by the octogenarian Joe Biden, and he suggests that he could be a candidate for re-election.

A few days ago, while enacting Barack Obama’s athletic sprints as he climbed the stairs of the presidential plane, he tripped twice. Keeping the theatrical pace, he went forward and fell. Days earlier, in Ireland, he didn’t realize that the guy who had approached him was British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the son of Indian parents.

Biden’s claim could inhibit the growth of alternatives in the Democratic Party. Bad deal.

At another end of the American predicament, the Supreme Court is not what it once was. Not only because for the first time one of its decisions, on the constitutionality of abortion, was leaked before being formalized. Judge Clarence Thomas fell into the frying pan.

He arrived at the court in 1991, nominated by George Bush 1. Black, symbolically, occupied the place of lawyer Thurgood Marshall, a champion of the struggle for civil rights. The only thing they had in common was their skin color.

For decades, Thomas has been considered one of the worst judges on the court. What is certain is that he barely participates in the debates.

A few weeks ago, Thomas was caught enjoying luxurious pampering and lodging sponsored by a billionaire. Half a million dollars thing. This taste for perks had already been practiced, on a smaller scale, by the brilliant Antonin Scalia. Go there.

Now Thomas has fallen back on the wheel. Until recently, he regularly declared to the IRS income that would come from a firm belonging to his family, which was extinguished in 2006. He says that it was all a mistake when filling out the forms. Tell this story to the Brazilian Revenue auditor who held the Bolsonaros’ Saudi jewels.

While Thurgood Marshall was on the Supreme Court, he was partnered with Abe Fortas, who had been President Lyndon Johnson’s personal counsel. They were so close that Johnson tried to promote him to Chief Justice. (In the US, that job, like that of judges, is for life.) He didn’t make it, but Fortas stayed on the court.

Soon after, the judge was caught receiving $15,000 for nine lectures at a university. In fact, the capilé came from a company with multiple interests. In today’s money, that would be about $150,000.

Judge receiving money from companies to give lectures? Nothing illegal, everything declared. Even so, Abe Fortas had to resign and ended up being removed from the law firm he had founded. He died in 1982 and President Johnson’s widow attended his memorial service.

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