Brazil’s
Dilma Rousseff, a Woman of Honor, Confronts Senate
of Scoundrels
By Pepe
Escobar
September
01, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "RT"
- Dilma
Rousseff entered the Senate and calmly stared down
her accusers. She left with her head held high after
exhorting those Senators to vote with their
conscience.
Most of
those politicians present probably had no idea what
conscience means; they’re no more than corrupt
messenger boys. But the Brazilian collective
unconscious – Jung to the rescue – will be marked.
President
Dilma Rousseff, in a detailed, occasionally
emotional speech, defended herself with honor and
dignity from accusations she committed a “crime of
responsibility”. She was not actually facing a
political cesspool, but that ‘Angel of History’ so
beloved by Walter Benjamin. History will judge her
kindly.
Meanwhile,
it ain’t over till a dodgy politico sings. As I
write, Rousseff is on the way to be stripped from
the presidency of the world’s 8th largest economy by
a bunch of scoundrel-cum-coward politicos. Her only
fear, she said, was the “death of democracy”.
Rousseff’s impeachment means in practice that
democratic voting in one of the world’s largest
democracies will be cancelled by a parliamentary
coup remote-controlled by oligarchic interests. This
is not, and never was, about justice; it’s about
dirty, nasty politics.
There is no
techno-bureaucrat argument whatsoever capable of
proving the President should be impeached because of
state budget maneuvers that did not yield a single
cent for her pockets, or to the detriment of the
Treasury – and this in an astonishingly
corruption-infested nation.
If we had
to rely on a single formulation to explain this
charade to a global audience this should be it: The
current parliamentary/institutional/big business/big
banking/corporate media coup is the tool used by
Brazilian oligarchs to smash the wealth distribution
drive that preceded, via President Lula, the
US-provoked global 2008 crisis of capitalism.
The Lula
and subsequent Dilma presidencies had adopted a very
Chinese “win-win” model. There was a sort of unwritten
pact between social classes: The rich got even
richer while the poor got less poor.
But then
the crisis hit BRICS member Brazil with a vengeance.
There was no Plan B – apart from exporting
commodities; the boom was over and
traitors/conspirators in the opposition saw an
opening to reclaim power on the wheels of the highly
selective ‘Car Wash’ corruption investigation. And
yet, this being KafkaLand, the parliamentary
impeachment drive against Dilma is in fact a
diversionary tactic devised to “tame” Car
Wash, so it wouldn’t hit oligarch-controlled
right-wing politicians.
The
vultures and their master plan
Emir Sader,
one of Brazil’s top sociologists, has
summed up what lies ahead: major social and
political conflict; military/police repression;
tearing up of the social contract; the nation
reduced to a mere US vassal; an unelected,
illegitimate government with no autonomy,
sovereignty and geopolitically sidelined. All the
while being “led” by currently interim, and
President-to-be Michel Temer, a mediocre, corrupt
coward who didn’t even have the balls to attend the
Olympics’ final ceremony because he knew he would be
booed out of a packed Maracana stadium.
Welcome to post-coup Brazil: Land of permanent
crisis, a powerless, illegitimate, corrupt
government, economic recession, and unemployment. As
Sader noted, “everything
positive that Brazil built this century will be
thrown out by a coup.”
Temer the
Usurper could never aspire to Shakespearean
grandeur, as a tragic figure. He’s already been
connected to almost $3 million in kickbacks. The
current Foreign Minister, the despicable Jose Serra,
a Chevron asset, has been accused of receiving over
$6 million, including overseas.
Yet further
serious accusations would have targeted right-wing
political parties even harder – utter devastation
extended to at least half of Congress – until they
were magically “disqualified” by purposeful
leaks. There’s the rub: in the current Kafkaesque
set up, only the “reds” – as in the
Workers’ Party – can be criminalized. Most of these
shenanigans will feature in at least four
documentaries currently in production about the
sorry saga.
Immediately after Dilma’s impeachment, the Senate
plans to throw what literally amounts to a fiscal
party – based on raised salaries for Supreme Court
ministers; these salaries regulate the remuneration
of all Brazilian public service. Remember that Dilma
is being accused of
“fiscal irresponsibility”.
Many
scoundrels/vultures will be dividing the spoils of a
dead democracy. What matters is that the number one
profiteer of impeachment will be the Goddess of the
Market. That also includes Big Business, mainstream
media (a monopoly of five families) and of course,
Exceptionalistan. Their mandate is clear. The
presidency is just a detail. What they need to
control is the Finance Ministry and the Central
Bank.
Their
policies are ready to be implemented: smash the
incipient Brazilian welfare state; keep interest
rates in the stratosphere; impose a “fiscal
adjustment”; and allow capital free flow.
Things like this only actually happens in certified
dictatorships.
Now they’ve
got the power, the neoliberal ideology and all the
necessary political alliances to pull it off. Add to
this a non-stop offensive against the Workers’ Party
as a means to counter-punch the accusations against
Temer the Usurper and his mediocre chancellor Serra.
So what’s
next? The highly fragmented, hyper-conservative
Congress will circle their wagons against
anything that threatens their privileges. The
Attorney General will hardly have the temerity
to really investigate Temer the Usurper and
other politicians. Although there is serious
evidence of corruption against them all,
the impregnable juridical/political/police/media
shield protecting the scoundrel galaxy is
astonishing. We are deep into protection of
organized crime territory.
Non-stop
back room deals are in progress as we speak. The
only certainty ahead is the assassination of
democratic and constitutional rights and the
smashing of social programs.
As I
already
detailed, the master plan ahead is vicious,
straight from disaster capitalism’s playbook;
selling out the pre-salt oil reserves to
foreign, as in US corporate, interests; selling
out indigenous Brazilian industrial development
via hardcore privatization; abandoning the
defense of Brazilian engineering know-how;
severe cuts on education, health, science and
technology; At the same time, there will be
“flexibilization” of workers’ rights, as in
attacking them on all fronts; a regressive
attack on pensions; and sabotaging Mercosur –
the South American common market – to the
benefit of vassal subordination to US interests.
In the
end, Rouseff will exit with her head held high.
As for the Angel of History, he will show the
scoundrels no mercy.
Pepe
Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. He
writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch, and is a
frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV
shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the
former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online.
Born in Brazil, he's been a foreign correspondent
since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan,
Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. |