Past peak crazy

MUCH of global polity was still "Bolsonaro crazy" in late February when Vladimir Putin and his siloviki ordered the invasion of Ukraine, one of the three nations in the Slavic trinity (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine) that refused to serve as a vassal state to Putin's Russia. Jair Bolsonaro, the then-yet-to-be-defeated president of Brazil, one of the Western Hemisphere's biggest democracies, was tearing Brazil's democratic framework from within and was still basking in the glory of being labeled the "Trump of the Latin Americas." He was one of the few leaders warmly embraced by the Trumpists at the White House. He reminded Donald Trump of his own bluster and irrepressible, bloated sense of self.

Bolsonaro, propped up by vicious cyber trolls and staffed by yes-men mostly plucked from retired military personnel (does this sound familiar?), held sway over Brazil, governing with brashness and an unapologetic loathing for the institutions that serve as democracy's guardrails. Critics harshly dismissed him as a "madman" unhinged from reality.