politics for the 99%

Published on Global Research.ca (first on RT), by Pepe Escobar, May 17, 2016.

This lowly farce should serve as a wake-up call not only to the BRICS but to the whole Global South. Who needs NATO, R2P (“responsibility to protect”) or “moderate rebels” when you can get your regime change just by tweaking a nation’s political/judicial system?

The Brazilian Supreme Court has not analyzed the merit of the matter – at least not yet. There’s no solid evidence anywhere Rousseff committed a “crime of responsibility”; she did what every American President since Reagan has done – not to mention leaders all across the world: along with her vice-president, the lowly Brutus, Rousseff got slightly creative with the federal budget’s numbers.

The coup has been sponsored by a certified crook, president of the lower house Eduardo Cunha; reportedly the holder of several illegal accounts in Switzerland, listed in the Panama Papers and under investigation by the Supreme Court. Instead of lording over near-illiterate hyenas in a racist, largely crypto-fascist circus, he should be behind bars. It beggars belief that the Supreme Court has not launched legal action against Cunha. The secret of his power over the circus is a gigantic corruption scheme lasting many years, featuring corporations contributing to his and others’ campaign financing.

And that’s the beauty of a regime change-light/color revolution of Hybrid War when staged in such a dynamically creative nation such as Brazil. The hall of mirrors yields a political simulacrum that would have driven deconstructionists Jean Baudrillard and Umberto Eco, if alive, green with envy; a Congress crammed with fools/patsies/traitors/crooks, some of whom are already being investigated for corruption, has conspired to depose a president who is not under any formal corruption investigation – and has not committed any“crime of responsibility”.

The neoliberal restoration: … //

We’re now open for plundering: … //

… In a message to the nation, Brutus Temer admitted as much;“hope” after impeachment will be absolutely swell for “foreign investment”, as in let them plunder the colony at will; back to the trademark history of Brazil since 1500.

So Wall Street, US Big Oil and the proverbial “American interests” win this round at the circus – thanks to the, once again proverbial, vassal/comprador elites. Chevron execs are already salivating with the prospect of laying their hands on the pre-salt oil deposits; that was already promised by a trusted vassal in the Brazilian opposition.

The coup goes on. The real hyenas haven’t yet pounced. So it’s far from over.

(full text).

(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. Even before 9/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of Globalistan (2007), Red Zone Blues (2007), Obama does Globalistan (2009) and Empire of Chaos (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is 2030, also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015).

Links:

Fake Right-wing Outrage ignores the Real, on Dissident Voice, by James Hoover, May 16, 2016;

The Vendetta of the Bangladeshi Government - Motiur Rahman Nizami, on Dissident Voice, by Jaan Islam, May 16th, 2016;

Special Page on teleSUR: Latin American Elites and the Panama Papers, May 2016;

Burying the White Working Class, on JACOBINmag, by Connor Kilpatrick, May 13, 2016: Liberal condescension towards white workers is code for a broader anti-working class agenda;

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SCOTLAND: Guy Standing to deliver Angus Millar Lecture for RSA, on BIEN, by Kate McFarland, May 12, 2016;

Universal basic income goes to public vote in Switzerland, on The Independent.co.uk, by Matt Payton, May 12, 2016: We need a basic income to allow each person to be his or her own entrepreneur, to choose what work he or she does, says Gabriel Barta of the Basic Income Earth Network;

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