Lula vs Merikkka

Of course, the moment re-inaugurated Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva "cozies up" (scare quotes if not obvious) to China, there's trouble!

And, while Responsible Statecraft links to the WaPost hating on Lula? At the NYT, Rossty Douthat sort of has the receipts showing the Post is way wrong about how the US is playing out right now in the non-NATO world. He more than sort of shoots himself in the foot, though, albeit not as bad as he sometimes does.

He tries to frame this as "developed democracies" vs others. Well, Brazil, and India, may not be as economically developed as the US, but last I checked, both of them, and especially Brazil (Modi continues to make me wonder in India) were democracies. So is the "S" of "BRICS" — South Africa.

All three of them are quite arguably more democratic than Ukraine. Brazil, at least, is quite arguably more transparent, too.

And, of course, Ross never talks about US Coca-colonialism, soft-power imperialism or whatever.

He does indicate that Merikkka will have to swallow some hypocrisy as BRICS-type countries become more powerful.

Daniel Larison at Responsible Statecraft, the first link, is far better. He pivots from Lula to the US duopoly's ongoing disaster in Venezuela and refusal to face reality, for starters.