Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The bidding war begins; Brazil, whose government once described climate action as a “Marxist Conspiracy”, is happy to stop chopping down the Amazon if they get a share of Biden’s two trillion dollar “stimulus”.
Brazil working with US on climate change and Amazon deforestation
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Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had developed a close alignment with former US President Donald Trump and shared his disdain for climate change issues and international accords.
But that has changed now, according to Araujo, speaking remotely to the Council of the Americas hemispheric business forum.
“Something that was regarded as an impediment… is totally out of the way. We are now working together… as key partners towards a successful COP26 and fully implementing climate agreements,” Araujo said, referring to the COP26 United Nations climate summit scheduled for later this year.
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Araujo had previously been seen as a climate skeptic, who had called theories of human-induced climate change a “Marxist conspiracy.”
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Araujo said Brasilia was looking to forge an alliance with the United States based on the values of “democracy and prosperity,” with Brazil needing U.S. investment to transform itself into a modern market economy.
Read more: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/brazil-working-with-us-on-climate-change-and-amazon-deforestation
How do people in Washington feel about rewarding expressions of international support with “investment”? Read what Obama’s former director of global engagement has to say about international money diplomacy;
America is going to need to spend massive amounts of money to rebuild its tarnished global reputation
BOB BRYAN MAR 6, 2021, 3:06 PM
- The US global image has been deeply damaged by Trump and decades of skimping on diplomacy.
- In order to rebuild America’s image, the government needs to be willing to spend tens of billions of dollars.
- Brett Bruen was the director of global engagement in the Obama White House and a career American diplomat. He runs the crisis-communications agency Global Situation Room.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
International influence isn’t something that comes cheap – even when you’re a super power.
America’s badly blemished brand will only begin to get better if the government dedicates a massive amount of money to addressing the challenge. This is not even a one-billion-dollar problem. We are talking tens and probably even hundreds of billions. Despite the considerable price tag, it is both necessary and worth the extraordinary expense.
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The US normally spends about two billion dollars a year on public diplomacy programs. These range from government-sponsored international media channels like the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe to foreign exchanges including the famous Fulbright scholarships. It also covers salaries for American diplomats and their staff to work at home and abroad in communications and cultural offices.
At this particularly perilous point for our nation, we desperately need a massive infusion of funds into our public diplomacy programs, increasing the budget to at least $US10 ($13) billion per year. That would still be less than the cost of our newest aircraft carrier.
More military equipment will not return the respect we lost under President Donald Trump. In fact, as former Defense Secretary James Mattis put it, if State Department funds get cut, “then I need to buy more ammunition.”
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I am not upset at Brazil for performing this backflip. President Bolsonaro’s track record suggests he cares as deeply about the welfare of the Brazilian people as Trump cares about the USA. If kissing Biden’s butt on international climate policy is a path to generating desperately needed US investment cashflows, I understand Bolsonaro and Araujo doing what they must.
But you have to wonder whether all those billions of taxpayer dollars Biden insiders want to spend on buying expressions of friendship deliver any actual value for the USA. All the smiles might make the diplomats look good, but what value does the USA receive?
From what Obama insider Bob Bryan said, President Trump thought it was mostly a waste of money.
It’s the first one. There will be the many others queuing all the way around the corner.
There is nothing to line up for. The US is bankrupt, they just haven’t realized it yet. The death of everyone on the planet will not change the atmosphere other than make things smell, but then there will be no one around to do the smelling.
..and of the extra $1.2 trillion dollar “Covid support” Bill just passed,only 9% is for actual Covid support. The other 91% of taxpayer borrowed money is going to every Democrat largesse you could imagine.The US,under the fraudulent Biden regime is on a downhill pathway to destruction fiscally,culturally and socially.China and the globalists will catch it somewhere along that path-perhaps near the bottom.
Biden Buying Brazilian Nut…
…ty Flip Flop.
But you have to wonder whether all those billions of taxpayer dollars Biden insiders want to spend on buying expressions of friendship deliver any actual value for the USA. All the smiles might make the diplomats look good, but what value does the USA receive?
We should all at least get a T-shirt.
That’s the best we can hope for, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
“…. what value does the USA receive”
Phoney admiration, and shedloads of it, more money the USA shed on them, the bigger the shedload of ‘appreciation’ you get in return.
“…. what value does the USA receive”
The Socialists now in charge get to waste even more taxpayer money under the false flags of ‘justice’ and ‘compassion’. The deeper they can put us into debt, the sooner their goal of making us a satellite state under CCP control can be realized. This is a result of our biggest existential threat which is that too many suckers are too easily fooled by fake emotional arguments.
Now they blame Trump? This is an old scam:
The money comes from the American taxpayer, who BORROWS it from the Fed, at interest. This money is then scrubbed and rinsed to respectability by the World Bank/IMF cartel, and after due process and the signing of a Good Governance* contract, this money is then LENT to Brazil, to be repaid, with interest, by the Brazilian taxpayer. The taxpayer will be lucky to see 3 cents to the dollar borrowed in his name.
*Good Governance contract: The client hands over their tax collection agency, because “Investor Confidence”. The money itself will be spent on what the IMF decides, at prices the IMF decides, using contractors the IMF will vet.
Come tax day, the IMF will first take all what they’re due, leaving the client country whatever is left, to spend according to Good Governance rules; more police and soldiers, less for schooling, health services and public projects. That’s called AUSTERITY measures. The only people benefiting here, are the bankster mafia.
So, instead of calling the client country grifters, understand what an effing usurious con this whole “foreign aid” scam really is. The world would be better off if America shoved their “gifts” up their own effing ass.
You get the effing drift?
Sorry for the French, but I see this system at the root of “world poverty”. I often wished Trump actually had enough brains to understand this kind of thing, but now suddenly it is his fault, like he has been running this scam the past seventy years.
The US taxpayer will absolutely get more debt.
US currency will be debased further. More money will need to be created to pay for all of the green stuff and the covid stimulations which looks like a pile of pork and waste.
The US people only care about what they hear in the news.
The Climate emergency to them is real as they are told 24/7 it is real and the climate emergency is taught in all the schools and at the universities.. . .. Currency collapse… not so much.
The Fake News have hid deficits, currency collapses, uncontrolled high unemployment that does not go away when there are currency collapse from the public.
Currency/Deficit is like a report card on how effective/logical the government of the period is.
The real emergency problem is: The US government is spending out of control and does not have a plen, is not going to limited to the US.
The UK pound is at its lowest point ever.
The US has borrowed every year to fight the crisis/the war of the year.
And to spend money that does not exist… It is necessary to create a climate emergency.
https://www.thebalance.com/us-deficit-by-year-3306306
Bush
2004 $413 $596 3.4% Iraq War
2005 $318 $554 2.4% Katrina, Bankruptcy Act
2006 $248 $574 1.8% Bernanke chairs Fed
2007 $161 $501 1.1% Bank crisis
2008 $459 $1,017 3.1% Bank bailout, QE
Obama
2009 $1,413 $1,885 9.8% Stimulus Act. Bank bailout cost $250B, ARRA added $253B
2010 $1,294 $1,652 8.6% Obama tax cuts, ACA, Simpson-Bowles
2011 $1,300 $1,228 8.3% Debt crisis, recession and tax cuts reduced revenue
2012 $1,087 $1,276 6.7% Fiscal cliff
2013 $680 $672 4.1% Sequester
2014 $485 $1,086 2.8% Debt ceiling crisis
2015 $438 $327 2.4% TPP, Iran deal
2016 $585 $1,422 3.1% Presidential race
Trump
2017 $665 $672 3.4% Trump Tax Act
2018 $779 $1,271 3.8% Deficit spending
2019 $984 $1,203 4.6% Government shutdown
2020 $1,083 $1,181 4.8% Budget before COVID-19
2020C $3,700 $4,226 17.9% With COVID-19 impact
Biden. Biden plans to spend as much money as he can get through congress. And Biden is creating problems such killing manufacturing jobs and oil industry/chemical industry jobs in the US.
December, 2020 …. Estimates…
2021 $966 $1,276 4.1% Budget before COVID-19
2021C $2,100 N.A. 9.8% With COVID-19 impact
This is where the Obama and Clinton diplomats haul in big money themselves.
I wonder how much “The Team Biden Family” will benefit from all this government spending?
Remember, the “Big Guy” gets a ten percent cut of the profits.
Joe ought to demand a bigger cut now that he’s president. It’s only fitting.
Meanwhile, Biden picks a fight with the Ruskies.
Over oil
This is Perfect Insanity going on here
Not to worry, Putin is not exactly nice guy, but again he is not stupid either.
Russian region is so large and being on the Siberian continental plate and probably just as rich in deposits, even if Russians had enough technology and manpower it would take them the rest of the century even to be tempted to stray into other coastal countries’ territory.
Brazilians need to learn coding first to keep up with other countries in hacking skills of U.S. agencies and banks.
Wouldn’t clearing old growth in the Amazon create a larger carbon sink as the new growth replaces it? Assuming you did it somewhat responsibly and didn’t allow the topsoil to wash away.
Yup, and the Brazilian government will be authorized by the UN to issue carbon offset certificates for the new growth, and maybe even for promising to reduce the future deforestation rate. Which they will sell to some business who provides YOU “net zero” goods or services. Like banks they will be able to “loan out” about 10x the actual amount “deposited”….you know…for the good of their economy…/s
“Wouldn’t clearing old growth in the Amazon create a larger carbon sink?”
“Yup”? Nope you you mean don’t you? Destroy a carbon store to create a carbon store? A process that might take a couple of hundred years to get you back to where you started from?
Considering Brazil’s history with a half century of commitment to fake renewable bio fuel, and even longer history with Marxist plots, this may be the coolest move ever. ‘Put up or shut up’ ought to be the battle cry against climate theocratic evangelism.
Men and women who would be gods, their profits (sic), advocates, activists, special and peculiar interests, and democratic base.
Brazil first. Good for them. Prophecy fulfillment will and should cost Americans.
With the USA’s decrease in carbon emissions the rest of the world ought to be paying us. My dad used to call Uncle Sam, Uncle Sap for good reason.
According to the left, the political spectrum runs like this.
Communist
Socialist
Far right
Anyone to the ‘right’ of Karl Marx, is now “far right”.
Anything right of center has been described as “far right” in Europe for some time, and now the leftists in the United States are adopting this narrative that everyone who isn’t a socialist is “far right”.
This is part of the ongoing plan to demonize the Right in an effort to diminish their political power.
If the Left didn’t have name calling, they wouldn’t have anything at all to talk about.
“If the Left didn’t have name calling, they wouldn’t have anything at all to talk about.”
Tom you need to look in the mirror…This is the man who just posted the appalling racist term “Mad Mullahs.”
Not racist, descriptive.
If you criticize a person of another race, does that make one racist in your book? Not mine. I go by Martin Luther King Jr.’s request to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t say anything against criticizing the content of another’s character. When I say “Mad Mullah” i’m criticizing the content of these maniac’s character. It’s got nothing to do with them being Persian.
Do you just call anyone you disagree with a racist? It seems so. The easy way out for the Left. When in doubt, call the other guy a racist.
You should apologize for calling me a racist without any evidence. I don’t appreciate being falsely accused.
“If you criticize a person of another race, does that make one racist in your book?”
Not at all Tom. Of course, as long as you are being honest and respectful that is not at all racist. But mocking a name that is tied to a culture, is about as racist as you can get. And I think MLK would certainly not approve of anyone using a name of this sort the way you did. Add to that that the person the British gave the name to, wasn’t even from Iran, he was a Somali. In my book that makes your lack of understanding and name calling even worse.
“But mocking a name that is tied to a culture, is about as racist as you can get”
Hardly, but you are welcome to your opinion.
I will continue to call the Mad Mullahs the Mad Mullahs. Because they are exactly that. If you take offense, that’s too bad.
If I call Kim Jung Un a tinpot dictator, is that a racist statement? You are probably not the guy to ask since you seem to like using racism as a tool, but I’ll pose that question to the others reading this.
I don’t care what you think, Simon because I think your thinking is either so caught up in the false reality of leftism that you can’t see straight, or you are just another of those on the left who dishonestly calls everyone on the right a racist. Either way, your opinion is not an opinion, it is a political position and I don’t think it is worthy of consideration.
I haven’t called you names in the past, but I can be brutally honest if that is required.
“If I call Kim Jung Un a tinpot dictator, is that a racist statement? ” No because he is. You are commenting on his character and what he obviously is. So you can say he is a poor leader, a murderer and a tyrant (call him Trumps friend). He is all those things.
But…. Racism …. “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group.” So if you call him the “Asian Assassin” or the “Fried Rice Fighter” then that is racist… as is the “Mad Mullah.” Not my opinion it’s fact.
“I haven’t called you names in the past, but I can be brutally honest if that is required.” Why resort to name calling. That is the domain of Fred. You are better than that I think.
Joey will help Brazil. Why? Because Joey always asks the question – will this help Zuck up America? and if the answer is YES, then Joey acts on it.
Isn’t this senior abuse? Calling Dementia Joe on the phone and asking for his PIN number, and in exchange promising to play nice at COP26.
How about NO! Ya crazy Brazilian bastard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lITBGjNEp08
Bolsonaro et al represent Brazilians, first, not Americans. Scientific prophecy, fascist progress, and democratic gerrymandering, have consequences, not limited to redistributive change.
You get to feel good, er, that’s it.
I would read that a bit more cynically. If someone is going to pay you to not chop down a tree in your front yard, are you really going to refuse?
The trees in the Amazon are like having PAYING tenants on a rental property. And they will still be there next year when the lease expires.
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And as for the “tarnished reputation“. This is what the world sees: Intelligence Community investigating political opponents, two bogus impeachments, a phony Russia Investigation, fortified (rigged) elections, cities lit afire, a media instigated toxic culture war, an out of control open southern border, twenty years of war in the Middle East, a sponsor of “color revolutions” and regime change operations (Libyan Option) around the globe, a tech industry that censors incorrect speech and political opponents (including POTUS), a national media that can’t report the truth, a scientific establishment that can’t report the truth, a treasury department that can’t stop printing money, and a completely corrupt man with the mind of a vegetable in the Oval Office.
And the United States is supposed to lead the world in a Great Reset? Which will usher in a New World Order of enlightened Progressive Global Governance? (raoflmao) Think about that, after the Cold War was won, this is the road that America has decided to take the world down. And if the United States is the epitome, for the rest to emulate, God help us all. The article is right about one thing however, it will take lots of money, because it is the only thing the United States has left to offer.
So, Bolsanaro is doing the right thing, as the last thing Brazil needs now is the US Intel Community stirring up trouble in Brasília.
they should make Norway kick in a few hundred billion to offset all that money their ff industry is making . instead of holding on to trillions in profit all for the benefit of a minuscule population . if they truly believed in democratic socialism …..
oday, anyone who is not a leftist is labeled an “Far-right”. Bolsonaro is just someone who defends the free market, good consumption and religious. For the vast majority of the Brazilian people he is on the right path!
Yes, he, they, are. Religion, whether moral philosophy, its relativistic sibling ethics, or its politically congruent cousin law, is ubiquitous. Different philosophers, principles matter. Brazilians have chosen people to represent them, first, and reconcile with their neighbors, second. The Brazilians have made the right choice that should serve their People and Posterity well today and into the future.
This is Foreign Aid writ large. Foreign Aid transfers wealth from the poor in rich countries to the rich in poor countries. Those billions of dollars that Joe Biden wants to give away belong to the ordinary citizens of the USA. Who will they go to?
“ President Bolsonaro’s track record suggests he cares as deeply about the welfare of the Brazilian people as Trump cares about the USA.”
Can’t argue with that. This week Brazils death rate went past that of the US and what did Bolsonaro have to say? ““Stop all this fussing and whining. How long are you going to keep on crying?.” Yep that’s a fare call Eric, I’d say he cares about as much as Trump.
As everyone knows, the only issue confronting the world today is the response to COVID-19.
Either that, or progressives only care about issues with which they can attack those they don’t like. Everything else is inconsequential.
…. “progressives only care about issues with which they can attack those they don’t like.”
If this were true, their task is being a whole lot easier by the likes of Trump and this complete plonker in charge in Brazil.
Asymptomatic fecal transmission. They should remove their masks, revoke any shelter in place restrictions, wash their hands, their nose, etc. to mitigate infection, and seek early treatments to mitigate disease progression and normalize community immunity. Also, if they are anything like America, close Planned Parent/hood facilities (mortality is correlated with comorbidities correlated with age), and prevent social contagion driving herd stampedes and cross-contamination.
Simon, its doubtful a Brazilian countermeasures such as say an order for lockdown would have have any effect, given the prevalence of Brazil’s notoriously lawless favelas. And where would Brazil have obtained the money to fund a lockdown?
When the Melbourne, Australia lockdown failed multiple times last year, the main corridors for spread from what I saw were places with significant drug abuse problems. Some of the hardest hit places in Britain also have significant drug or alcohol problems.
My guess is addicts frequently have compromised immune systems, and have priorities other than obeying the government.
Brazil has big problems with hard drug abuse, as does Britain, and California – IMO a possible reason why lockdowns in those places have been ineffective, even when attempted.
“Brazil has big problems with hard drug abuse, …” Yes it does, but it also had a problem with a leader who like the x boss in the US, has minimised the issue, promoted false medications in HCQ and shown contempt for the people he was elected to protect. No better example than the quote from him this week. And Eric while you have a point re druggies etc you cannot complain about how Australia and NZ have faired with covid relative to the rest of the world. Hell we even had you cricket team over here last week and we were grateful for it (and the win.)
“When the Melbourne, Australia lockdown failed multiple times last year, the main corridors for spread from what I saw were places with significant drug abuse problems.”
Absolute bollocks. The main corridors were poorly trained and monitored guards and staff at quarantine hotels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Australia#Victoria
Brazil’s biggest problem was and still is lack of leadership. Their covid case rate and death rate are at their highest and still rising.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/brazil/
“Something that was regarded as an impediment… is totally out of the way.”
An “impediment” named Donald J. Trump?
Joe Biden, like his former boss Barack Obama, has a knack for “investing” (aka giving away) American taxpayer dollars for projects in other countries. How much $$$ did Obama give the Iranian mullahs for promising to be good little boys and not build a nuclear weapon, which they did anyway?
So now Brazil wants money to promise not to cut down the Amazon rain forests? What would Biden do if Bolsonaro gets the money and reneges on his promise? Give him more money for another promise?
As soon as there’s an American President acting like Santa Claus, the beggars line up at the door of our Treasury!
“How much $$$ did Obama give the Iranian mullahs for promising to be good little boys
“
Do some reading. Obama didn’t give any US money to Iran. The money was there’s from deals that were never followed through on, then the money was frozen. It was given back to Iran as part of a multi national agreement of which the US was one of many countries. In fact it wasn’t even held in the US. So it actually cost the US nothing. This lie goes round and round and of course the liar in chief (Trump) was the one who promoted it the most(like the birther nonsense).
Yes, Obama unilaterally reordered claims to give priority to the Iranians. As for the birther nonense, that was likely conceived, then evolved with Clinton, but what difference does that make now.
…” likely conceived, then evolved with Clinton”…. peddled by the likes of Monckton and Trump.
“Yes, Obama unilaterally reordered claims to give priority to the Iranians.” Reference please?
Did the Mad Mullahs get billions of dollars after the Obama-Biden deal, that they didn’t have access to before the deal? Of course, they did.
What do you suppose the Mad Mullahs spent all those extra billions of dollars they got from the Obama-Biden deal on?
OK I will say it again Tom. It was “their” money and the US was part of a multi national decision which aimed to reduce the possibility of nuclear conflict. Most agreed it was working. And….The fact that you resort to racial slurs is sad my friend.
“The fact that you resort to racial slurs is sad my friend.” Islam is a religion, not a race. Therefore, calling them “mad mullahs” can’t be racist. In addition, Iranians are caucasian.
In addition, I’m only referring to the Mad Mullahs, not the entire population of Iran.
For the record, I don’t think everyone in Iran is a Mad Mullah. Only a few of the population are Mad Mullahs, so I can’t be accused of stereotyping or lumping eveyone into one category, i.e., racism.
Simon is just playing the race card like a dedicated lefty does. When they are losing the argument they resort to calling the oppostion racists. It’s real easy to do. It takes no thought at all. Anyone can call someone else a racist. And that’s the fall-back position on the Left. Simon’s comments are just another example of it.
The “racist” label is applied so that one can summarily dismiss everything said by the “racist”, therefore removing any need to engage in any discussion.
Of course! The racism charge is meant to shut people up.
Me, I like discussing racial issues. They are important and the Left distorts everything about it in order to create division in society among the races.
So I don’t have a problem with calling out the leftists for their race-baiting and consequent destruction of society. The people calling others racists are usually the actual racists themselves. It’s like everything else with the Left, they disingenuously accuse the Right of everything the Left does.
Show Me The Money
Keep a sharp eye on the progs..
No experience required…
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.deeperblue.com/center-for-american-progress-seeks-ocean-policy-research-assistant-associate/%3famp
https://www.americanprogress.org/press/release/2021/02/19/496116/release-sec-must-regulate-climate-risk-now/
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2021/03/01/496290/role-accounting-auditing-addressing-climate-change/
Ahhhh, I can just see it (as regards Brazil demanding US investments to “transform itself”) . . .
Republican response: You talkin’ to me?
Democrat response: Where do we drop the cash?
US creates USDs at zero cost. As soon as US interest rates go negative all the bond holders will cancel them. That will be the time when USDs lose their gloss to buy stuff around the globe. Imagine the difficulty for the US when other countries stop accepting USDs.
US current account is now running at USD700bn a year. That is the imposition the US places on other nations for the right to issue the global currency. At some point China, Japan and other holders of US debt will recognise that the USDs they are holding are worthless. That realisation will be hastened when Biden starts throwing USDs at green monuments,
RickWill posted: “US creates USDs at zero cost.”
That’s right. “Free money for everyone . . . except those that pay the taxes!”
This Biden administration and supporting Democratic party—in the recent passage of a $1.9 trillion USD “stimulus” bill—has finally eliminated any pretense that the following is not EXACTLY the way US government is now working:
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” — Alexander Fraser Tytler (but frequently misattributed to Alexis de Tocqueville)
TANSTAFM – There Ain’t No Such Thing As Free Money
Biden who?
https://mobile.twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1369044328807596036?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1369044328807596036%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fembarrassing-senior-moment-biden-forgets-what-pentagon-called-blanks-secretary-defense
There is no far right president in Brazil. That’s BS. He is just a non stealing President.