“Where there is indigenous land, there is wealth underneath it.” President-Elect Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil
Yet another inconvenient truth folks, this time occurring right under our noses in Brazil. The razing of what remains of the Amazon rainforest is game over for the planet. It will not be able to grow back in time to help stabilize the Earth’s atmosphere from climate change.
So I don’t apologize for the above headline, see, I don’t think when it comes to extraction industry crimes, paired with a worldwide fascist kakistocracy - the media headlines are simply not apocalyptic enough.
It is not a stretch of the imagination that the recent election in Brazil is game over for the planet. But don’t give up. Really, don’t give up.
The gut-wrenching and threatening situation unfolding in the Amazon Rainforest is so overwhelming, traumatic, and life-ending really, that we must not stand in the fork of the road like a deer in the headlights.
Because during this time of Capitalism and Fascism’s greatest peril to humankind, we can stop them, saving the rainforest and ourselves. Yes, you and I can stop the newly elected fascist President-Elect Jair Bolsonaro dead in his tracks before he does his best to kill every last one of us.
How do we do that? We force Wall Street to do it, that’s how. As usual Donald Trump has not chosen the better angels path but, instead will only provide support for these monsters, along with “the embrace” whatever that means. Trump should be meeting with one of Bolsonorao’s vicious sons at any moment and they make Saddam Hussein’s sons, Qusay and Uday, look like cub scouts.
Since we are constantly distracted by all of Trump's daily scandals, acting like a big baby, drama queen tweets and finally coming out and fessing up to being what we all know he is — a proud White Nationalist. We will need to redouble our focus to save Brazil’s rainforest, the Lungs of the Earth. That won’t be easy with mass media coverage that only centers on Trumpism. This provides him with billions of free advertisement.
Grassroots power utilizing social media, can be an effective tool against corporate interests if we utilize it. The European Union seems to be determined to stop Bolsonaro. We can too.
Western corporate interests have never salivated over the cash cow that is the Brazilian rainforest, as they are now.
Jake Johnson of Common Dreams writes:
As Brazilian women, the LGBTQ community, workers, and people of color reacted with horror to the election of fascist Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency on Sunday after a campaign dripping in bigotry and militarism, Western corporate interests and the business press could hardly contain their glee over the victory of the hard-right former paratrooper who has promised to further pry open Brazilian markets to foreign investment, slash corporate taxes, and privatize the nation's public services.
snip
Enthused by Bolsonaro's selection of right-wing University of Chicago-trained financier Paulo Guedes to craft his economic agenda, investors are "more than happy to overlook the authoritarian impulses and violent promises," The Intercept's Lee Fang and Zaid Jilani note.
"Guedes has promised to sell off state assets, cut the public pension system, revise the tax code, and deregulate the economy," Fang and Jilani reported. "Another Bolsonaro adviser, Nabhan Garcia, told Reuters that the administration would slash fines for farmers who violate environmental rules in sensitive areas like the Amazon."
Corporate excitement over Bolsonaro's ascent to power—made possible in large part by the imprisonment of Brazil's former president and most popular politician, Lula da Silva, on corruption charges that have been denounced as highly questionable—began when the far-right lawmaker prevailed in the first round of elections earlier this month.
From The Guardian: Who is Jair Bolsonaro? Brazil's far-right president in his own words. Sounds eerily familiar, doesn't it?
On refugees:
“The scum of the earth is showing up in Brazil, as if we didn’t have enough problems of our own to sort out.” (September 2015)
On gay people:
“I would be incapable of loving a homosexual son. I’m not going to be a hypocrite: I’d rather my son died in an accident than showed up with some bloke with a moustache.” (June 2011)
“I won’t fight it or discriminate, but if I see two men kissing each other in the street, I’ll whack them.” (October 2002)
“We Brazilians don’t like homosexuals.” (2013)
“Are [gays] demigods? ... Just because someone has sex with his excretory organ, it doesn’t make him better than anyone else.” (February 2014)
On democracy and dictatorship:
“You’ll never change anything in this country through voting. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, things will only change when a civil war kicks off and we do the work the [military] regime didn’t. Killing some 30,000 …. Killing them! If a couple of innocents die, that’s OK.” (May 1999)
“I am in favour of a dictatorship … We will never resolve serious national problems with this irresponsible democracy.” (1992)
On human rights:
“I’m in favour of torture.” (May 1999)
“Brazilian prisons are wonderful places ... they’re places for people to pay for their sins, not live the life of Reilly in a spa. Those who rape, kidnap and kill are going there to suffer, not attend a holiday camp.” (February 2014)
“Are we obliged to give these bastards [criminals] a good life? They spend their whole lives fucking us and those of us who work have to give them a good life in prison. They should fuck themselves, full stop. That’s it, dammit!” (February 2014)
On women:
“I’ve got five kids. Four of them are men, but on the fifth I had a moment of weakness and it came out a woman.” (April, 2017)
“I said I wouldn’t rape you because you don’t deserve it.” (December 2014, to politician Maria do Rosário, repeating a comment first made to her in 2003).
On race:
“I don’t run the risk [of seeing my children date black women or being gay]. My children were very well raised.” (March 2011)
“I went to visit a quilombo [a settlement founded by the descendants of runaway slaves]. The lightest afrodescendant there weighed seven arrobas [more than 100kg]. They don’t do anything. I don’t think they’re even good for procreating anymore.” (April 2017)
What a guy.
There are links in this story which reveal that these two shits didn’t fall very far from the rectum. They are two of the sons of the President-Elect. The story contains a very graphic image of a tweet that Carlos (left) sent out with a warning to women to behave or else.
In September during the lead-up to the election, Carlos Bolsonaro sparked outrage after sharing a post on Instagram defending the Brazil military dictatorship’s cruelest methods of torture, the so-called “macaw’s perch.” The excruciating technique involved placing a bar over the victim’s biceps and behind the knees which are then bound to the ankles. The macaw’s perch aims to inflict intense musculoskeletal and joint pain as well as psychological torture.
He quickly retracted the image while, echoing the words of Trump, claiming the controversy was “fake news” meant to smear his family prior to the presidential election.
snip
During the same month, Carlos Bolsonaro took to Instagram once again to post a photo depicting a bloodied man suffocating from torture while bound in a plastic bag. The image was interpreted as a threat toward women and others who stand against right-wing candidates like his father.
The Importance of the Amazon rainforest to a stable climate.
A healthy Amazon rainforest is one of the Earth's best defenses against climate change. The world's tropical forests, of which the Amazon is the largest, currently absorb some 20 percent of the carbon dioxide produced from burning fossil fuels. Protecting the Amazon rainforest – which when cut or burned actually contributes to climate change – must be a centerpiece of the global efforts to stop climate change, along with transitioning to clean energy.
For climate and forest protection strategies to work, they must be based on the rights of the region's indigenous peoples who continue to be the Amazon forest's most effective stewards. Unfortunately, these same groups are some of the first people to be impacted by climate change as weather patterns shift. In addition, their rights face potential threats from some of the climate solutions being proposed internationally.
From Climate Change News:
Bolsonaro’s environment policies are tied to racist attitudes toward minorities and Brazil’s indigenous peoples. In a speech last year, he said: “Minorities have to bend down to the majority… The minorities [should] either adapt or simply vanish.”
Expressing a view common to military circles, he has claimed, without evidence, that indigenous land rights are part of a western plot to create separatist Amazonian states supported by the UN.
snip
Bolsonaro has promised to open indigenous lands to mining and other economic activities. About 13% of Brazil’s territory is recognized indigenous lands, most of them in the Amazon. They are a major barrier to protect the forest, only 2% of rainforest deforestation has occurred inside indigenous territory.
I will end this piece of my story with these excerpts from National Geographic.
All indigenous communities are afraid right now,” says Felipe Milanez, professor of humanities at the Universidade Federal de Bahia. “There is a risk of brutal, violent attack.” Milanez fears that indigenous efforts to patrol and protect their own lands from outsiders, such as the Forest Guardians recently covered in National Geographic magazine, will be banned and persecuted.
“His economic project is to destroy the Amazon, to transform the Amazon into commodities for export,” Milanez says.
Human rights activists are concerned that a surge in violent land conflicts will accompany an increase in environmentally destructive development in the Amazon. "There is no doubt that devastation will spread in the region," says Diogo Cabral, an attorney with the Sociedade Maranhense de Direitos Humanos. "At the same time, he aims to extinguish policies that protect human rights defenders in Brazil. Under Bolsonaro, human life will have no value."
It’s a prospect that leaves Brazil’s indigenous populations with a sense of foreboding. “Scientists have shown that the lands where indigenous people live have the most intact, protected forests,” says indigenous leader Marubo. “That’s because for us the land is life. Our land is not for sale. It’s not for rent. Without the land, there is no life.”
Oh, how we need a hero.
Monday, Nov 12, 2018 · 10:30:25 PM +00:00 · Pakalolo
I embedded a link in the story. I wanted to share excerpts that it includes the funds we need to watch.
The world’s largest asset managers could play a pivotal role in safeguarding the Amazon forest, a report published on Thursday shows, amid concerns Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro could strip the planet of its lungs.
The report, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, reveals that US asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street have major holdings in corporations driving deforestation in the country, including beef and soy companies.
Taken together, the group own between 15-20% of shares in soy exporting companies Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Bunge. They have smaller stakes in beef giants JBS, Marfrig and Minerva.
Due to be sworn in on 1 January, Bolsonaro has advocated for the removal of environmental barriers to economic activities in the Amazon. That could make open new areas of the forest to agriculture.