{"id":19032,"date":"2016-03-21T11:26:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T16:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19032"},"modified":"2016-03-21T11:26:33","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T16:26:33","slug":"brazil-is-engulfed-by-ruling-class-corruption-and-a-dangerous-subversion-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19032","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Is Engulfed by Ruling Class Corruption \u2014 and a Dangerous Subversion of Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brazil Is Engulfed by Ruling Class Corruption \u2014 and a Dangerous Subversion of Democracy<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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T<\/span>HE MULTIPLE, REMARKABLE\u00a0crises consuming Brazil\u00a0are now\u00a0garnering\u00a0substantial Western media attention<\/a>. That\u2019s understandable given that Brazil\u00a0is the world\u2019s fifth\u00a0most populous country and eighth-largest economy; its second-largest city, Rio de Janeiro,\u00a0is the host of this year\u2019s Summer Olympics. But much of this\u00a0Western media coverage<\/a>\u00a0mimics the propaganda coming from Brazil\u2019s homogenized, oligarch-owned, anti-democracy media outlets and, as such, is\u00a0misleading, inaccurate, and incomplete, particularly when coming from those with little familiarity\u00a0with\u00a0the country (there are numerous Brazil-based\u00a0Western<\/a>\u00a0reporters<\/a>\u00a0doing\u00a0outstanding\u00a0work<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It is difficult to overstate the severity of Brazil\u2019s multi-level distress. This short paragraph yesterday from the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u2019s Brazil bureau chief, Simon Romero,\u00a0conveys<\/a>\u00a0how dire it is:<\/p>\n

Brazil<\/a>\u00a0is suffering its\u00a0worst economic crisis in decades<\/a>. An enormous\u00a0graft scheme<\/a>\u00a0has hobbled the national oil company. The\u00a0Zika\u00a0<\/a>epidemic<\/a>\u00a0is causing despair\u00a0across the northeast<\/a>. And just before the world heads to Brazil for the\u00a0Summer Olympics<\/a>, the government is fighting for survival, with almost every corner of the political system under the cloud of scandal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brazil\u2019s\u00a0extraordinary political upheaval\u00a0shares some similarities with the Trump-led political chaos in the U.S.: a sui generis, out-of-control\u00a0<\/em>circus unleashing instability and some rather dark forces, with a positive ending almost impossible to imagine.\u00a0The once-remote prospect of President Dilma Rousseff\u2019s impeachment now seems likely.<\/p>\n

But one significant difference with the U.S. is that Brazil\u2019s turmoil is not confined to one politician. The opposite is true, as Romero notes: \u201calmost every corner of the political system [is] under the cloud of scandal.\u201d<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n

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Brazil Is Engulfed by Ruling Class Corruption \u2014 and a Dangerous Subversion of Democracy THE MULTIPLE, REMARKABLE\u00a0crises consuming Brazil\u00a0are now\u00a0garnering\u00a0substantial Western media attention. That\u2019s understandable given that Brazil\u00a0is the world\u2019s fifth\u00a0most populous country and eighth-largest economy; its second-largest city, Rio de Janeiro,\u00a0is the host of this year\u2019s Summer Olympics. But much of this\u00a0Western media coverage\u00a0mimics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13039,90,1769,13040,5437,1921,5567,12022],"class_list":["post-19032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-andrew-fishman","tag-brazil","tag-corruption","tag-david-miranda","tag-glenn-greenwald","tag-new-york-times","tag-the-intercept","tag-zika-virus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19034,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19032\/revisions\/19034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}