Brazil

One of the most overlooked and important events of recent days is the election,, in Brazil, of an extreme right wing President. Okay. Fair enough. It is their Country.
But, watch what happens. I have written a lot about our mistreatment and neglect of our Southern neighbors. Again. The chikens come home yo roost.
Brazil certainly has problems. Deep poverty alongside decadent wealth is never a good thing. Neither is way too many people in latge urban areas and a wildly uneducated population.Crime is outrageous.
The newly elected President promises  to be tough on crime. Good, but their is a fine line between tough and nightmarish. Just ask the people of the Philippines about Duarte.
The new Brazilian regime promises economic growth. Great. But, how much will reach their wretchedly poor urban population.
To get that growth, he plans to whack down some more of the Amazon rain forest. That cannot be allowed. With climate change a reality (yes, President Trump, it is real, not a Chinese hoax), to cut down that vast canopy of trees would be disastrous. If Brazil; proceeds with this, the rest of the World needs to hit them with every sanction imaginable. We can get along without their mineral wealth (which is considerable, but there are other sources), without their timber (we grow our own on properly managed tree farms and are coming up with new alternatives to timber every day), and the little bit of oil they pump.
What else do they have? Sugar, and we all eat way too much of that. Ayahuasca, a hallucinogen,  which we definitely don't need. Throw in some produce, and that's about it.
They also need tourist dollars and the new President's extreme dislike of gay people will not help that at all. Carnival brings in a lot of money and picking on gay folks will not do Brazilian tourism a lot of good/. Again, it's their Country and they can do what they want, but this cannot end well. Watch an old movie called, appropriately enough, Brazil/ It is sort of a comedic take on 1984. let's hope it is not prophetic