Dilma Rousseff, unemployed ex-commandante affiliated with the Mao-Communist Sendero Luminous and of late an erstwhile President of Brazil. The leftist world press is, predictably, bemoaning her recent impeachment and conviction by the Brazilian Senate (62 - 19).
As in the case with her now-deceased homologue, Hugo Chavez, and her still-alive homologue Cristina Fernandez Vd. de Kirchner, Poor Dilma is another of the "nuts-and-bolts, non-ideological leftist democrats" who float up to the surface of seemingly every nation in the New World from time to time....or perhaps, all the time.
The picture of poor Dilma, looking forlorn, makes one think that she is pondering how it was that George Bush managed to destroy her approach to establishing the Brave New World. She seems to be saying to herself, "Self, you had every detail planned, every single citizen's life mapped out, every method of soaking the wealthy and the established middle class sector of Brazilian life (2nd largest middle class by numbers in Latin America), all my friends paid off with Petrobras graft and shenanigans....it was all so perfect." She seems to be waiting for the strains of the theme song from "Evita" to strike up.
To put it mildly, the previous administration of Mr. Lula, her mentor, practiced tax-and-spend to perfection, setting poor Dilma up for a possible fall when the inevitable "Latin-American Inflation" would set in. The solution, for leftists in Latin America (and elsewhere) to the problem of the poor people not having a lot of money is to put more zeros on the bank notes that constitute a given leftist-rule country. Of course, a month goes by and a person cannot purchase a box of matches for 50,000 pesos. But, he has a ''lot'' of "money" (monopoly, anyone?). The system, similar to what we describe in our preceding submission concerning the true cost of helping people become dependent on income-transfer payments, public assistance, subsidised or free housing and the like, never works.
The Little Red Hens become exhausted and fewer in numbers and the rest of the barnyard animals become more sullen, less industrious, and more disposed to have babies that have no fathers.
People might point out that during Lula's two terms, things seemed to be gaining traction, finally, in Brazil. Heck, more and more students were receiving essentially free money to attend the universities, where they could major in Vegetarian Perspectives through a Socially Democratic Lens. Or, courses in "How to Combat Climate-Change Deniers". Lula could afford to provide such lofty academic fare because the price of oil back then was running between 100 and 140 Yankee Dollars per barrel. Or at least he thought he could provide such niceties and other vote buying schemes as well.
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| Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva President of Brazil, 2002 - 2010 |
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| Michel Temer President of Brazil |
Finally, we leave the OROG community with this photograph of the ex-Vice President of Brazil, who is decidedly more conservative, and who was just approved by the Brazilian Senate to serve the unexpired term of Madame Rousseff, by a vote of 61 to 20. He faces high seas and strong counter winds, but he is an old and wily fox, relatively popular throughout the Brazilian populace. At the very least, a non-marxist at the helm might help stabilise the jittery nerves in the Brazilian economy. The people look nervously at the Venezuelan situation and they must be praying to any god that might listen that such anarchy does not spill into Brazil.
El Gringo Viejo
El Gringo Viejo
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