segunda-feira, 14 de agosto de 2017

Brazil’s Corrupt Congress Protects its Bribe-Drenched President, Finalizing Elites’ Two-Year Plot


Aside from showing the world the pulsating, deep-seated, still-metastasizing sickness that lies at heart of Brazil’s political class – what kind of ruling class decides to leave in place a President caught on tape endorsing bribes? – yesterday’s vote also forever dropped the mask on the real reasons why Rousseff was impeached.
Contrary to the deceitful script created and relentlessly disseminated by the highly-paid, glittery propagandists employed by the country’s incestuous, oligarchical media, her impeachment had two, and only two, motives: 1) protect Brazil’s political class from the corruption investigation by empowering the capital’s most corrupt figures and letting them kill the investigation, and 2) serve the interests of domestic plutocrats and international finance by “reforming” social programs for the nation’s poorest in the name of “austerity.”


Glen Greenwald
Just over a year ago, in Brasília, one of the most nauseating and humiliating political spectacles I’ve ever seen took place over nine hours. In Brazil’s lower House – a body where a majority of members are implicated in corruption investigations – one dirty, shady cretin after the next stood up in front of television cameras and flamboyantly declared that their conscience, their religion, their God, their children, their devotion to Jerusalem, the memory of their mother, their pastor, the purity of their soul demanded that they punish corruption by removing the elected President, Dilma Rousseff, from office.
Just imagine the most extreme, primitive cartoon version of a gleefully hypocritical moralizer – a preacher who leaves his weekly whorehouse orgy to go directly to Sunday church to rail against hell-bound sinners – and you’ll have a perfect vision of the majority faction that sanctimoniously paraded itself that day. The slime that oozes from their pores is palpable. These are the people who nullified a national election in, and are thus now ruling over, the planet’s fifth most populous country.
With clarifying symbolism so perfect no screenwriter could imagine it, that tawdry, vulgar sleazefest was presided over by House Speaker Eduardo Cunha (pictured, right), an organized crime boss masquerading as a legislator. Shortly after he engineered Rousseff’s removal – which the nation’s major media elites unified to pretend was motivated by earnest concern about corruption –  Cunha was sent to prison, accused of bribery, money laundering, witness intimidation, and racketeering.
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Glen Greenwald – 03.08.2017.
IN The Intercept.





Vitória 'custa' pelo menos R$ 13,2 bi

Na visão de Fabio Klein, da Tendências Consultoria, "em meio à tamanha impopularidade e à necessidade de garantir apoio legislativo contra o avanço da denúncia de corrupção", aumenta a tentação do governo para "usar recursos de poder disponíveis, dentre eles a liberação do orçamento".


Daniel Rittner e Fernando Torres
A vitória obtida ontem pelo presidente Michel Temer na Câmara dos Deputados teve um custo alto para os cofres públicos e doerá no bolso do setor privado. Apenas três iniciativas de um "pacote de bondades" recente para agradar aos parlamentares - a liberação de emendas, o refinanciamento de dívidas de produtores rurais e o aumento dos royalties da mineração - somam uma conta de R$ 13,2 bilhões. O enfraquecimento político do governo também pode gerar frustrações na arrecadação federal, com um atraso na reoneração da folha de pagamento e mudanças no projeto do Refis.
Mais de 95% dos R$ 4,15 bilhões dos empenhos de emendas parlamentares ocorreram entre junho e julho. O período coincide com as vésperas da votação da denúncia apresentada pela Procuradoria-Geral da República (PGR) contra Temer na Comissão de Constituição e Justiça (CCJ) e, logo em seguida, no plenário da Câmara. Nos primeiros dois dias de agosto, o , o valor empenhado supera toda a liberação de janeiro a março.
O empenho é a primeira etapa para a efetivação do gasto, quando esses valores são "carimbados". Depois, ocorrem os pagamentos. No acumulado do ano, os pagamentos somam R$ 2,04 bilhões.
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Daniel Rittner e Fernando Torres – 03.08.2017.                      
In Valor Econômico.