Abandon Hope All Ye Who Are Leftists

Your model is going down.

The corrupt opposition, along with the corrupt media, in Brazil is making a mockery of their democracy. Leftist president Dilma Rousseff, twice elected to office, and, unlike most of those bringing the action against her, has no charge of accepting money for personal gain, is being impeached on charges of manipulating state of the government figures by members of congress, many of whom themselves are accused of corruption.

Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff faced a day of judgment on Sunday as a hostile and corruption-tainted congress began voting on whether to impeach her and bring nearer an end to 13 years of Workers party rule.

Expected to last at least seven hours, the tense political spectacle was broadcast live to the nation, which has turned dramatically against the country’s first female leader. Once one of the most popular presidents in the world, Dilma now has approval ratings of just 10% as a result of economic recession, political turmoil and a huge corruption scandal.

  Guardian

This is why the opposition to Hugo Chávez worked so hard to completely wreck the Venezuelan economy (and hope they can complete the coup under Maduro) - when the economy is on the skids, people hold the guy at the top responsible, giving the opposition the leverage they need to stage a "legitimate" coup.

The odds are stacked against the president, who is accused of window-dressing government accounts before the last election. Rousseff says her opponents are using this minor and common infraction as a pretext for a coup to seize power.

[...]

Huge outdoor screens have been erected in several cities so demonstrators can watch as each of the 513 lower house deputies register their ballot and makes a short statement.

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About a third of the lower house deputies are either under investigation or charged with crimes.

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Among them is one of Rousseff’s chief opponents, speaker Eduardo Cunha, who is accused of receiving more than $5m in kick-backs from the state-run oil company Petrobras and of lying to congress about secret Swiss bank accounts. Last week police raided his home and seized hundreds of documents.

Despite his own problems, Cunha has set the rules for the impeachment session and will preside over the vote.

If, as seems likely, Rousseff is impeached, she will step down, and Vice President Michel Temer, a right winger who is also apparently guilty of serious corruption, will take over as interim president, unless, of course, the investigation into his affairs causes him to be impeached as well.

The 75-year-old lawyer has a low profile for someone in such a linchpin position at the top of Latin America’s biggest country and economy.

A constitutional scholar, he is perhaps best known to voters for having a 32-year-old former beauty contestant as a wife.

[...]

For months he made his displeasure at Rousseff known, sending a letter in December where he complained of feeling undervalued as “a decorative vice president.”

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Rousseff accuses him of manipulating the impeachment proceedings to rise to the top, calling him a “conspirator.”

  Japan Times

She may well have a point. The action to start impeachment proceedings against Temer was filed last December, and it was on the same charge that faces Rousseff: manipulating government accounts to hide the truth of the economic situation. Speaker Cunha rejected the request, which came from a private citizen, but a judge overruled him.

Mr Cunha and Mr Temer are both in the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), which until recently was in an uneasy coalition with President Rousseff's Workers' Party.

The PMDB left the coalition last week and has been highly critical of Ms Rouseff.

  BBC

And so it began. And guess who would be president if both Rousseff and Temer were impeached? You guessed it: Cunha.

Mr Cunha, who would be next in line to succeed Ms Rousseff if both she and Mr Temer were to be impeached, is also facing legal problems of his own.

He has been accused of money-laundering in connection with corruption at the state-run Petrobras oil company.

The fourth in line, Senate leader Renan Calheiros, is also under investigation in connection with the Petrobras corruption scandal.

All four deny any wrongdoing.

Holy Hell.

The House vote currently taking place regarding the impeachment of the president will determine whether a Senate trial is in order, and Rousseff will be suspended during that time (assuming the vote is yes).

And, this could all be a different story by morning, too.

 

UPDATE 8:00pm Central Time:

UPDATE 9:00 pm:

Deputies were called one by one to the microphone by the instigator of the impeachment process, Cunha – an evangelical conservative who is himself accused of perjury and corruption – and one by one they condemned the president.

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On a dark night, arguably the lowest point was when Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right deputy from Rio de Janeiro, dedicated his yes vote to Carlos Brilhante Ustra, the colonel who headed the Doi-Codi torture unit during the dictatorship era. Rousseff, a former guerrilla, was among those tortured. Bolsonaro’s move prompted left-wing deputy Jean Wyllys to spit towards him.

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Yes, voted Paulo Maluf, who is on Interpol’s red list for conspiracy. Yes, voted Nilton Capixiba, who is accused of money laundering. “For the love of God, yes!” declared Silas Camara, who is under investigation for forging documents and misappropriating public funds. And yes, voted the vast majority of the more than 150 deputies who are implicated in crimes but protected by their status as parliamentarians.

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As the outcome became clear, Jose Guimarães, the leader of the Workers party in the lower house, conceded defeat with more than 80 votes still to be counted. “The fight is now in the courts, the street and the senate,” he said.

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Just 110 voted against the removal of the elected head of state less than halfway through her mandate.

Once the senate agrees to consider the motion, which is likely within weeks, Rousseff will have to step aside for 180 days and the Workers party government, which has ruled Brazil since 2002, will be at least temporarily replaced by a centre-right administration led by vice-president Michel Temer.

  Guardian