TPM:
The investigation into a multibillion-dollar kickback scheme at Petrobras has ensnared dozens of elite politicians and businessmen across the political spectrum. Although Rousseff herself hasn’t been implicated, top officials in her party were and that tarnished her reputation.
Any Brazilian readers want to weigh in on this? Does Rousseff really deserve impeachment or is this a political coup as Rousseff charges?
As an American, I’m afraid I’m not as familiar with current Brazilian politics as I’d like to be. As a center-lefty who liked Lula, I’m somewhat inclined to side with Rousseff. If the information presented here - that Rousseff is not personally involved in any of the corruption scandals - is true, then It looks like she’s getting shafted here. But I know very little about the current situation and it would be interesting to hear what people on the ground in Brazil think.
Sounds about as crazy as I would imagine our politics look from the outside looking in.
A right-left struggle with petroleum right in the middle, go figure.
Alternative energy, especially solar in Brazil is likely the answer to all of their problems.
Take big oil out of the picture and there isn’t much of a picture. Just bikinis, sun tans and Brazil nuts ; )
I have very little understanding of the situation going on in Brazil. Seems as though its one of those countries that never really worked out a viable post colonial solution. However, this really bothers me:
Temer, a 75-year-old career politician, has promised to cut spending and privatize many sectors controlled by the state.
Most every situation I’ve ever read, privatization has always ended up making a bad situation even worse. Adding in the problems brought on by climate change to the region, I forsee major problems for Brazil long into the future.
That’s what worries me. Austerity is always a bad solution
I asked a very astute Brazilian friend (who lives here in the US) about this and he said it’s essentially a bloodless coup, carried out by the same monied interests that supported the military dictatorship. It’s well known in Brazil that the vice-president and his cronies who will take over are ten times more corrupt than Dilma. He also noted that the people who will take over the Brazilian economy are the usual suspects — vultures from the IMF, Goldman Sachs, etc.
One of the most interesting things he said — I wish I could find his exact phrase; it was an old Brazilian saying — was that Brazilians by and large considered it akin to “changing the flies on the same piece of shit.”
Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, has posted a series of excellent articles on the whole fiasco at The Intercept. Here’s his latest:
Thanks, Tiowally. Your post pretty much confirms what I’d been beginning to suspect from other casual reading on the subject today.