Things are certainly happening fast in Brazil. First, President Dilma Rousseff is re-elected - somehow - a month ago. Then the absolutely multi-faceted shitstorm that she evidently managed to keep bottled up during the campaign exploded about thirty seconds after her victory speech, her approval rating crashed all the way down to single-digits, and impeachment proceedings were initiated against her.
But that was last week. This week we see how her massive corruption scandal is giving her the means of staying stubbornly in power forever and ever, amen:
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Luiz Edson Fachin suspended for a week the creation of a congressional committee that would recommend whether to continue impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff after the government was defeated in a secret vote to appoint members of that committee.
Fachin, appointed by Rousseff to the top court earlier this year, issued the ruling just hours after Congress accepted the committee members appointed by the opposition on Tuesday evening, in a tumultuous session marred by physical scuffles between congressmen. Pro-government lawmakers objected to the vote, saying it should have been public.
Brazilian assets traded overseas jumped higher on Tuesday as the approval of the committee members in a secret vote was considered a defeat to Rousseff, who has been struggling to keep enough votes to stop impeachment proceedings in Congress. Many investors believe that a solution to the impeachment impasse would be positive for the economy as it would remove a major source of uncertainty. [emphasis added]
To distill this crisis to its essence, Dilma Rousseff is a crook and a communist and a tyrant who swindled her way to power, swindled her way to reelection, has decimated the Brazilian economy while enriching herself and her cronies, and is using her usurped power now to thwart the will of the betrayed Brazilian people in their attempts to remove her and bring her to justice by peaceful means.
Which leaves....non-peaceful means as the Brazilian people's only other option, ultimately. Hopefully that will not prove to be necessary. We'll see what this week buys Team Rousseff in terms of arm-twisting, threats, death threats, blackmail, extortion, etc. It seems abundantly clear that if she's going to go down, it won't be without an all-out war.
I'd say something about South America's largest country still being a banana republic at this point, but with the U.S. possibly being about to follow the Brazilians down the same primrosed, Vagisiled path, it would be too much like casting rocks from one honking big glass house.
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