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Arkane posted:Good article on Brazil's struggles: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-05/petrobras-now-262-billion-poorer-exposes-busted-brazil-dream quote:The graft investigation has uncovered a record 23 billion reais ($8.4 billion) in suspect transactions, and Petrobras’s credit rating has been downgraded to the cusp of junk as company officials say that so far it’s been impossible to account for losses from the alleged kickback scheme.  That's some world-class squandering right there.
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Feb 5, 2015 20:31
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hecko posted:Azran: De donde sos? Here, have some Borda-level Timecube poo poo http://eldiablociaonu.blogspot.com.ar/?zx=a02077879376046d
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Feb 5, 2015 21:01
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Volkerball posted:Man, Kirchner is really on a roll lately. It gets better: Kirchner's in China trying to negotiate for a loan from the Chinese government.
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Feb 6, 2015 01:21
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ALL-PRO SEXMAN posted:It gets better: Kirchner's in China trying to negotiate for a loan from the Chinese government. It makes her look like an idiot, sure, but its not going to affect the economics.
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Feb 6, 2015 11:58
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And most of my countrymen are insanely xenophobic so for a lot of people it's a 'high five sick nasty' moment.
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Feb 6, 2015 12:07
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So, an Israeli paper (Haaretz) says Uruguay kicked out an Iranian diplomat over the bomb found near Israel's embassy a few weeks ago. The bomb wasn't real, but the Ministry of Defense said they believed it was placed to test security in the area.
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Feb 6, 2015 14:01
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Polidoro posted:So, an Israeli paper (Haaretz) says Uruguay kicked out an Iranian diplomat over the bomb found near Israel's embassy a few weeks ago. The bomb wasn't real, but the Ministry of Defense said they believed it was placed to test security in the area. Considering all the poo poo that's happening in Argentina, I would've held off on this kinda poo poo if I was Iran.
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Feb 6, 2015 20:39
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My president is getting imputated for the whole thing it seems? 
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Feb 14, 2015 05:49
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Meanwhile, in Chile (Argentina's boring cousin), President Bachelet's son was forced to resign from his government post as... whatever it is that he did, after allegations that he used privileged information to his benefit in a real estate deal by his wife's company. We hardly knew you, Guatón Mamón.
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Feb 14, 2015 07:39
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Chile should learn from Uruguay where politicians sons get filthy rich without needing to take a position in government. If you want to know more ask Tabaré Vazquez.
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Feb 15, 2015 03:56
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Beautiful Cristina found innocent <3
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Feb 27, 2015 15:19
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No joke someone posted a young picture of her in the D&D pics thread and  The whole Nissman investigation has been a real shitshow so far though. Also I'm really pissed that we are going to have to vote something like 6 times this year, some of them spurious extra elections (open primaries that no one asked for, and the separation of the city and national elections for political maneuvering). Keep wasting people's time and those taxpayer's bucks guys.
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Feb 27, 2015 15:30
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Did anyone else hear what Lilita Carrio has been saying lately? That auto coup d' etat and all that. People are linking it to the disappearance of bullets and an ATGM from military buildings. Personally, I think an ATGM would sell for a fairly decent price in the black market, even if it's a Dragon II or whatever we use here 
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Feb 27, 2015 16:15
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Markovnikov posted:No joke someone posted a young picture of her in the D&D pics thread and If the boots come back you will be relieved of your voting obligations!
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Feb 27, 2015 16:27
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Azran posted:Did anyone else hear what Lilita Carrio has been saying lately? That auto coup d' etat and all that. The atgm thing is all very silly, its practically unusable. Much more worrying is all the 9mm pistol ammo they stole near Rosario.
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Feb 27, 2015 19:04
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Every time I see anything about Carrio she just seems deranged. Is she peddling some coup fears now or something?
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Feb 27, 2015 19:11
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Markovnikov posted:Every time I see anything about Carrio she just seems deranged. Is she peddling some coup fears now or something? She desperately wants to be relevant.
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Feb 27, 2015 19:13
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Ghost of Mussolini posted:The auto-golpe thing isn't about violence on the streets etc, if anything of that sort happens (I don't think it will) it would be something akin to the fujigolpe. However I don't think its possible, Argentine institutions may have deteriorated considerably, but its not 1992 Peru. Yup. I just find funny that people are freaking out about the ATGM when it's like one, only useful against armored vehicles and requires a trained specialist to operate. I'm 99% sure it got stolen to sell it off somewhere else.
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Feb 27, 2015 19:51
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She's referring to the possibility of an announcement of new judges being appointed to vacant positions outside of proper process (meaning "appointment under commission", replacing judges appointed by subrogation). Carrió argues that the president will push for this on her "State of the Union"-equivalent speech on Sunday, when she addresses Congress, and therefore moving ahead with a self-initiated coup due to the improper way of appointing these magistrates and naming judges that would favor the current national government with their rulings and specifically president Fernandez.
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Feb 27, 2015 20:43
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I don't think that sort of bait would work however. As trollish as it is (and it would be effective in that regard) I believe that at the decision-making level of the opposition parties, cooler heads would prevail. Carrio might make a huge fuss about it now (and would make a huge fuss about it when/if it happens), but she wouldn't actually go through with any sort of action that is unconstitutional or anti-democratic. I think that Macri, Sanz, etc. would all also refrain from such things. Everyone knows that the K wing of the party is done, and anyone who supports them by now will have to wait at least one or two electoral cycles before they can come back from being mayor of Resistencia. This move would not be done by a powerful Christina fresh from elections and with years to go in power, but by someone in a horribly deteriorating position who everyone knows will be out of office sooner rather than later. Any designation of laws or positions that are not done through the proper codified channels (i.e. not as law through Congress but through executive powers etc.) can be reversed just as easily as they are implemented. All the people that have been appointed through such methods during the K years will just be removed and replaced as they replaced the ones before them, and so on and so on. If Christina does do something completely ridiculous like re-staff the entire judicial branch through emergency commissions then its all going to be paralyzed by strikes and such action. Maybe I'm missing something but I just don't see what constructive moves are left from the position of the Presidency and its rapidly-shrinking base of support.
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Feb 28, 2015 01:04
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Castells Presidente.
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Feb 28, 2015 01:05
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In a 100% related note: I listened Mala Fama's "Ritmo y sustancia" unironically. They're truly The Doors of cumbia villera.
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Feb 28, 2015 01:26
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Ghost of Mussolini posted:I don't think that sort of bait would work however. As trollish as it is (and it would be effective in that regard) I believe that at the decision-making level of the opposition parties, cooler heads would prevail. Carrio might make a huge fuss about it now (and would make a huge fuss about it when/if it happens), but she wouldn't actually go through with any sort of action that is unconstitutional or anti-democratic. I think that Macri, Sanz, etc. would all also refrain from such things. Everyone knows that the K wing of the party is done, and anyone who supports them by now will have to wait at least one or two electoral cycles before they can come back from being mayor of Resistencia. This move would not be done by a powerful Christina fresh from elections and with years to go in power, but by someone in a horribly deteriorating position who everyone knows will be out of office sooner rather than later. Any designation of laws or positions that are not done through the proper codified channels (i.e. not as law through Congress but through executive powers etc.) can be reversed just as easily as they are implemented. All the people that have been appointed through such methods during the K years will just be removed and replaced as they replaced the ones before them, and so on and so on. If Christina does do something completely ridiculous like re-staff the entire judicial branch through emergency commissions then its all going to be paralyzed by strikes and such action. Maybe I'm missing something but I just don't see what constructive moves are left from the position of the Presidency and its rapidly-shrinking base of support. The rats are just leaving the boat because there is no possibility of continuity. Political allegiances and parties are a loving joke. "Peronism" or "Kirchnerism" mean nothing more than "Menemism" ever did. Everyone would suck Macri's dick if it'd get them a position. Polidoro posted:If the boots come back you will be relieved of your voting obligations!  
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Feb 28, 2015 01:32
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It's not even March and we already have the best campaign ad of the year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwxmNAx-qlc Walter Wayar, former vice gobernor of Salta wants to be the Mayor of Cachi. He has all my votes.
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Feb 28, 2015 03:19
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Apparently there was a 4 hour speech today. Did anybody catch it? 
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Mar 1, 2015 20:33
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The Lava Jato list is out! http://www.cartacapital.com.br/blog...campaign=buffer 2 PSDB (including Neves), 1 PTD (Fernando Collor, lol), 6 or 7 PT, 6 or 7 PMBD (surprisingly low) and like 30 PP.
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Mar 7, 2015 01:20
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I am pretty sure Neves' name will go unnoticed. The guy is made of Teflon, even though he is just about the dirtiest politician in Brazil. He pretty much created the whole mensalao thing (for both PT and PSDB: the money was laundered through one of his allies who was head of the Furnas hydroelectric company), and no one said a thing about that. He has dirt on everybody, so he can even betray his own party and no one will say a thing.
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Mar 7, 2015 03:40
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joepinetree posted:I am pretty sure Neves' name will go unnoticed. The guy is made of Teflon, even though he is just about the dirtiest politician in Brazil. He pretty much created the whole mensalao thing (for both PT and PSDB: the money was laundered through one of his allies who was head of the Furnas hydroelectric company), and no one said a thing about that. He has dirt on everybody, so he can even betray his own party and no one will say a thing. Have there been any theories to explain the number of PP people, other than "PP exists solely for corruption"?
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Mar 7, 2015 03:43
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Badger of Basra posted:Have there been any theories to explain the number of PP people, other than "PP exists solely for corruption"? The PP is Paulo Maluf's party, so that right there shows they were founded to be corrupt. But more than that, PP is like PMDB, in that it always allies itself with the party in power. But unlike PMDB, they aren't big enough to make investigations against them disappear.
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Mar 7, 2015 04:07
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Anyone here from Brasil? How are things going over there? There arent many things published in the media here, but from what I've seen there have been protests due to water scarcity, truck drivers decided to have a strike, and now the Petrobras corruption scandal that will probably be huge enough to gently caress up stuff for most of LA (at least Chile, we buy petroleum from Brasil).
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Mar 10, 2015 18:02
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El Laucha posted:Anyone here from Brasil? How are things going over there? There arent many things published in the media here, but from what I've seen there have been protests due to water scarcity, truck drivers decided to have a strike, and now the Petrobras corruption scandal that will probably be huge enough to gently caress up stuff for most of LA (at least Chile, we buy petroleum from Brasil). The likelihood of impeachment is increasing, and at this point, that would be a soft coup. Things are getting ridiculous. The congressional investigation into Petrobras has voted not to include the Cardoso presidency in the investigation, despite testimony that the whole thing started in 1997, and the investigation into Aecio Neves has been archived (though it continues for his right hand man). Dilma herself has not been tied into anything, but Eduardo Cunha (the person who would have the power to bring impeachment proceedings to a vote in congress) has. I am not saying that Dilma or the PT are innocent (they clearly aren't). But we are in the amazing situation where the people who are much more deeply implicated in the whole thing are pushing for the impeachment.
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Mar 11, 2015 17:19
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joepinetree posted:The likelihood of impeachment is increasing, and at this point, that would be a soft coup. Things are getting ridiculous. The congressional investigation into Petrobras has voted not to include the Cardoso presidency in the investigation, despite testimony that the whole thing started in 1997, and the investigation into Aecio Neves has been archived (though it continues for his right hand man). Dilma herself has not been tied into anything, but Eduardo Cunha (the person who would have the power to bring impeachment proceedings to a vote in congress) has. I am not saying that Dilma or the PT are innocent (they clearly aren't). But we are in the amazing situation where the people who are much more deeply implicated in the whole thing are pushing for the impeachment. I'm confused. So the guilty--or the most guilty--parties are calling for some scapegoats to be impeached in order to distract and cover their own asses? And that would amount to a coup on their part?
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Mar 11, 2015 18:31
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rockopete posted:I'm confused. So the guilty--or the most guilty--parties are calling for some scapegoats to be impeached in order to distract and cover their own asses? And that would amount to a coup on their part? Not scapegoats, since they are likely guilty of something, but a very selective prosecution of corruption. Here are the basics, for those unfamiliar: Brazilian politics is polarized between PT (labor party, leans left, currently in power since 2003) and PSDB (leans right, in power between 1995-2002). But there is a huge amount of party fractionalization in congress. PT is the biggest party in congress, and by themselves they have less than 15% of all seats. This means that in Brazil there are a number of parties that are essentially for rent. Parties that have always been part of whatever government is in place, and they do that essentially in exchange for high level cabinet positions where they can put their allies in power. The biggest one of these parties is PMDB, which was with PSDB when they were in power, and is now with PT now that they are in power. Some of these positions are high level directorates within the Brazilian oil company, Petrobras. Federal police in Brazil has discovered a kickback scheme within Petrobras. Whoever wanted to do business with Petrobras had to pay money to key directors within Petrobras. Testimony points to this current scheme starting in 1997. PSDB was in power then, and remained in power until 2002, after which PT took over. This has led to a congressional committee to investigate the issue. Which is where part of what I mentioned took place: they voted that the commission only had power to investigate things post 2005, essentially clearing PSDB from the bulk of the investigation. The investigation by the attorney general is independent of that, and PT has appointed a fairly independent one, who is not afraid of going against the party that selected him. The attorney general release a list of people in congress that are being investigated due to their involvement. This list includes a bunch of people from PMDB and PP (another rental party that has always been allied to the party in power, regardless of who it is). But it also includes some mid-level folks from PT and, more importantly, the current leader of PSDB (defeated presidential candidate Aecio Neves) and his right hand man (senator Anastasia). Also important is that the same investigation also pointed to the previous president of PSDB taking a massive kick back to stall any investigations into the scheme. So pretty much all major parties are involved, including the current PT administration and the previous PSDB one. But here's where things get complicated. Brazilian congress has a lot of power. It can amend the constitution without any external process. And the president of congress (the Brazilian speaker of the house) has a huge amount of power over what gets voted on, including impeachment proceedings. Normally, the president of congress goes to the largest party in congress, which would have been PT. But PMDB semi rebelled and decided to ally itself with other parties and the opposition to claim the presidency of congress. The new president of congress is Eduardo Cunha, from PMDB. Here's the kicker: he is one of the people named in the scandal. In fact, he is neck deep in it. And the fact that the attorney general that released his name was nominated by PT has made him really mad at PT. So he is orchestrating the removal of the attorney general when his name comes up for reconfirmation. And he is the person who gets to decide if any impeachment votes go forward or not. Since he is third in the line of succession, an impeachment would mean not only that his party gains the presidency (since the vice president is from PMDB), but that he becomes the de facto vice president. Which is why I said this would be a soft coup. There is no evidence that Dilma, the president is involved. But there is a growing push for her impeachment for corruption. This push is led by PSDB (there will be massive anti-PT demonstrations this 15th), including Aecio (who is named in the investigation), and will depend entirely on PMDB going along with it. So within the year there is a decent chance that a scandal that involves mainly PMDB and PP, but also PT and PSDB will lead to the ouster of PT from power, while PMDB (the party with the second most names involved in the scandal) would then control the presidency, the senate and the house, and would likely have to ally itself with PSDB (the party that has its former two leaders involved) to govern. This also has led to a few interesting reversals in congress, where PT saw a few proposals to balance the budget defeated by PMDB and PSDB. joepinetree fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Mar 11, 2015 |
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Mar 11, 2015 19:35
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Wait so I was under the impression that Petrobras is run essentially like a normal corporation just that Brazil has 51% of its shares, was it always a corrupt clientalism machine?
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Mar 11, 2015 21:36
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Lawman 0 posted:Wait so I was under the impression that Petrobras is run essentially like a normal corporation just that Brazil has 51% of its shares, was it always a corrupt clientalism machine? In Brazil, there is a fine line between normal corporation and corrupt clientelism machines. I know someone who became a millionaire after he got into the parts acquisition branch of fiat. One of the underrated parts of the whole scandal is that investment on infrastructure has been essentially frozen because every single major brazilian corporation has been involved in the investigation.
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Mar 11, 2015 22:14
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joepinetree posted:In Brazil, there is a fine line between normal corporation and corrupt clientelism machines. I know someone who became a millionaire after he got into the parts acquisition branch of fiat. This. My father deals with plenty of acquition managers in the (private) graphic business here in Brazil and the amount of kickbacks they take in is grotesque. A journalist friend of mine used to work in the Minas Gerais branch of a local news portal and said that Aecio Neves is basically untouchable there. Trying to pursue any story regarding him that is not 100% fawning is the easiest way to lose your career. I fully expect the next election to be a Neves/someone from PMDB slam dunk, impeachment or not.
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Mar 12, 2015 03:29
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Wow. Is there any hope for, well, anything decent in Brazilian politics anytime in the next decade or so? The rot seems so thorough.
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Mar 12, 2015 04:30
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rockopete posted:Wow. Is there any hope for, well, anything decent in Brazilian politics anytime in the next decade or so? The rot seems so thorough. This is just ye olde brazilian oligarchic poo poo working as intended by our traditional elite PMDB best represents that, it's mostly composed of agribusiness leaders and politicians from eminent local families and has the following: Vice-presidency Senate presidency Chamber of deputies presidency Most elected mayors Most governors Most deputies (in a tow-bloc with other rental parties) Most senators They have a deadlock on the brazilian power structure, are brokers for basically any position and profess no ideology whatsoever. It's been called a "physiological" party, as in it's deeply embedded in the State and it's normal functioning, but have no political talent or will to present a way forward or a clear vision for the future of Brazil, preferring to sit on their money-making machine and make sure, from behind curtains, no one else gets it doing anything that might threaten the status quo. these fuckers will be the death of us, but with the political debate centered in a PT vs PSDB narrative no one seems to care bagual fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Mar 12, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 05:04
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Sephyr posted:This. My father deals with plenty of acquition managers in the (private) graphic business here in Brazil and the amount of kickbacks they take in is grotesque. Just so people know how powerful Aecio is with the media: he got a host of a nationally televised TV program fired while on the air because he criticized Aecio over a minor thing. Back in 2004 Belo Horizonte was hosting an Argentina Brazil match. Aecio was governor, and he closed part of the stadium for 20,000 of his guests. When he did that, he transformed the handicapped entrance into a red carpet for the VIPs. The host in question (Kajuru) showed someone on a wheelchair unable to enter the stadium because security was only allowing Aecio's guests through that entrance, and said he would talk more about it after the break. He never got back from the break, and was fired on the spot. Aecio has also beat his then girlfriend in public, been caught drunk driving, and sued google to prevent google from showing any results tying him to cocaine, none of which made headlines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BixdPe_Jqxw The most amazing recent example was last year. A helicopter belonging to one of his key allies was found with over 400 kilos of cocaine. It was quickly forgotten by the media, who claimed that the helicopter pilot was the head of the operation and was using the helicopter without authorization. Because it somehow makes total sense that the head of an organization that can move hundreds of kilos of cocaine like that would need to get a job as a helicopter pilot in order to get access to one. rockopete posted:Wow. Is there any hope for, well, anything decent in Brazilian politics anytime in the next decade or so? The rot seems so thorough. Believe it or not, things have progressed quite substantially under PT. Again, not to claim that PT is clean in all of this, but at least under their government they have nominated fairly clean, technical people for the main corruption fighting posts. PT's nominations to the federal police have been career agents as opposed to party loyalists, Janot (the attorney general) is far more independent than Geraldo Brindeiro (the AG under Cardoso), and supreme court nominations have been people like Barbosa (who sent a bunch of PT operatives to prison) while Cardoso put people like Gilmar Mendes in (who cleared and voided all processes related to corruption in the privatization process). The issue, as bagual points to, is that Brazil is still horribly, horribly oligarchic. And the Brazilian elite is incredibly racist and classist. PT made a series of deals with the devil in order to create modest improvements on the life of the poorest (yearly changes in per capita income by income bracket, from poorest to richest):  I have an acquaintance who said, unironically, that PT has messed up Brazil so much that he had to let one of his 3 maids go, because PT had raised the minimum wage so much. Just so you have a better idea about how horrible, horrible the opposition is, there will be protests on the 15th and I guarantee that you will see tons of signs speaking against communism and socialism. When you see those, keep the following graph in mind:  This is total tax burden by income. Income here is measured as multiples of the minimum monthly wage. As you can see, it is incredibly regressive. A big reason Brazil is so unequal is because the government actively transfers money from the poor to the rich. PT has led a modest reduction in inequality by simply creating a few cash transfer programs. The main one, bolsa familia, pays less than 100 dollars to families below a certain threshold that keep their kids in school. So when you see the Brazilian right talking about communism, that is what they are referring to: a modest cash transfer program in a country with regressive taxes. PT has tried to pass an estate tax and a tax on large accumulated wealth, but has failed in congress. Which leads to a situation where Brazil has the 4th lowest tax burden in the (measured) world for people who make over $250,000 a year. If you move that to $400,000 a year, Brazil has the 3rd lowest tax burden (only ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia). And if you are still not convinced that PMDB and the opposition are made up of horrible, horrible people, I will mention PT''s two main achievements in the last year, which they had to fight tooth and nail for 8 years and were only able to get through because it was an election year: - The slave labor constitutional amendment: now the government can take over rural properties that they've found to be using slave labor. - the maid rights' constitutional amendment: maids had been specifically excluded from labor rights legislation, and that changed last year. PT had to go all out to get those. Now, this is not meant to be an endorsement of PT. But just a few examples of how low the bar is set in terms of deciding which alternative is better. joepinetree fucked around with this message at 08:10 on Mar 12, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 06:21
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joepinetree posted:Just so people know how powerful Aecio is with the media: he got a host of a nationally televised TV program fired while on the air because he criticized Aecio over a minor thing. Back in 2004 Belo Horizonte was hosting an Argentina Brazil match. Aecio was governor, and he closed part of the stadium for 20,000 of his guests. When he did that, he transformed the handicapped entrance into a red carpet for the VIPs. The host in question (Kajuru) showed someone on a wheelchair unable to enter the stadium because security was only allowing Aecio's guests through that entrance, and said he would talk more about it after the break. He never got back from the break, and was fired on the spot. Aecio has also beat his then girlfriend in public, been caught drunk driving, and sued google to prevent google from showing any results tying him to cocaine, none of which made headlines. Ho-ly poo poo. Going to have some fascinating conversations next time I see my Brazilian in-laws. They're from Recife originally, I don't know if that matters or where that fits on the political map or if it can even be broken down that simply. How does Aecio hold that much support/fear? Is he just really charismatic, does he have dirt on everyone, or something else? joepinetree posted:I have an acquaintance who said, unironically, that PT has messed up Brazil so much that he had to let one of his 3 maids go, because PT had raised the minimum wage so much. Just so you have a better idea about how horrible, horrible the opposition is, there will be protests on the 15th and I guarantee that you will see tons of signs speaking against communism and socialism. When you see those, keep the following graph in mind: MINIMUM WAGE DESTROYS JOBS, wish I hadn't heard that one before. And US conservatives talk about Latin America as if it was some sort of socialist monolith, hahahaha. Where do the 2013 protests fit in to this? Did they get suppressed/dismissed like Occupy in the US, or did they have a lasting effect of any kind? rockopete fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Mar 12, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 23:11
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