Michael Royster
The Curmudgeon moved to Rio over forty years ago, and remained there until late 2018. He's been writing political commentary for The Rio Times for nine years. He once referred to himself as a WASP (look it up) but doesn't any more because it embarrasses him.
Brazil’s Municipal Elections: How They Work; What They Mean – Part II
RIBEIRÃO PRETO, SP – This Sunday, November 15th, over 100 million Brazilian citizens will go to their local polling stations, in 5,570 municipalities, and...
Opinion: How the Coronavirus Killed the Trump Presidency
RIBEIRÃO PRETO, SP – (Opinion) Donald Trump consciously used lies to bolster his presidency, starting with his inaugural address, where he claimed more people...
Opinion: Calculate We Must – The US Presidential Elections
Ribeirão Preto, SP – (Opinion) On Monday, November 2nd, this contemplative pundit made two calculated forecasts for the US presidential elections:
(1) “All the above...
Opinion: Thinking the Unthinkable – Trump’s Dark Vision
Ribeirão Preto, SP - (Opinion) My fellow gringo Peter Rosenwald has put forward the case for returning the U.S. to something of a semblance...
Opinion: Bolsonaro, Trump and the Centrão – a Curmudgeonly Conspiracy Theory
RIBEIRÃO PRETO, SP - (Opinion) In a recent column, we posited that the resurgent “Centrão” bloc in Brazil’s Congress has supplanted the “300 Picaretas”...
Brazil’s Municipal Elections: How They Work and What They Mean
RIBEIRÃO PRETO, SP - Brazil has 5,570 municipalities, spread around 26 states. In thousands of cities and towns, some 33 political parties have...
Opinion: The Triumphal Return of the “300 Picaretas”
RIBEIRÃO PRETO, BRAZIL - (Opinion) Back in 1993, running for President after serving in Congress for four years, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva famously...
Trump Re-election Campaign Promises to Protect Rio’s Corcovado Statue
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Over the weekend starting Friday, July 4th, the re-election campaign for US President Donald Trump ran ads on Facebook...
“The Man on Horseback”: a Post-Pandemic Prophecy? (Opinion)
RIBEIRÃO PRETO, BRAZIL – (Opinion) On Sunday, May 31st, saw Brazil’s President Bolsonaro engage in his weekly attempt to sabotage science, first by overcoptering...
Opinion: Bread and Circus? Send in the Clowns! Let Them Eat BBQ!
Ribeirão Preto, SP – (Opinion) Not content with the poor popular ratings of his “bread and circus” routine of going walkabout, taking (cough! cough!)...
Opinion: “Yo, el Supremo”: Does Brazil’s President Have a Persistent Delusional Disorder?
Opinion, by Michael Royster
Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo –In 1974, Paraguayan author Augusto Roa Bastos published a novel entitled “Yo, el Supremo” (in English “I,...
Opinion: How (and Why) the Presumption of Innocence Became Controversial in Brazil
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The presumption of innocence is one of democracy’s fundamental components — no country without it can rightly call itself...
Opinion: Can Chief Justice Toffoli Avert a Brazilian Institutional Crisis?
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - Last week’s decisions by Brazil’s Supreme Court STF, which adhered to the literal language of the Constitution, thus barring...
Opinion: How the Presumption of Innocence Could Cause a Brazilian Constitutional Crisis
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - The landmark decision, on November 7th, by Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF), holding by a slim 6 – 5 margin...