Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[martinuzz]

As far as I could understand, that's just a part of the proposed changes. The tax increase was to fill budget deficits for social support in general, not just old-age support payments. Besides that, another proposal, part of people's pensions were to be withheld for a fund for medical expenses.
But perhaps I misunderstood that.

[Reelya]

Don't forget that Ortega is the man who created the universal healthcare system in Nicaragua:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Nicaragua

During this 1970s period, Nicaragua had one of the worst life expectancies at birth and one of the highest levels of infant mortality in the regional area. ... Only 25% of the total health budget was controlled by the Ministry of Health, and 90% of the services went to 10% of the population

^ pre-Ortega

After the 1979 Revolution, the new government established a new Unified National Health System that instated the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MINSA) at the head of health services throughout the nation. This system also integrated the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS) under MINSA's direction in order to make it financially feasible to provide a single national health service available to all Nicaraguan citizens, regardless of socioeconomic background. With the combination of these institutions, the INSS hospitals and clinics, previously only accessible to insured employees, then opened their doors to the larger population.

^ post-Ortega

Basically, Ortega is the guy who turned medical care into something everyone had a right to have, pensions into something everyone got: when he first took power, life expectancy was 58 years, e.g. lower than the pension eligibility age. Niacaraguans now live 75 years, so of course, the system needs tweaks, and it's not Ortega's fault that it needs tweaks. Nicaraguans live much longer than before Ortega took power. People live longer now, and thus suffer from more diseases of old age.

The system needs more money now, for pensions and age-related medical care, not because Ortega fucked things up, but because they succeeded in raising the standard of living and life expectancy so much. The conservative economists are the ones going "slash pensions" e.g. their response to living too long is to remove support for old people, thus solving the "problem" of too many people living too long: stopping the pension for 60 year olds saves money directly, but also indirectly, by reducing the number of people who will survive to 65.

[martinuzz]

Maduro just nationalized Venezuela's largest private bank, Banesco, and 11 of it's executives have been arrested by the police.
They have been charged with attacking the nation's valuta.
According to public prosecutor Tark Saab, the bank's management has deliberately devalued the bolivar, they are responsible for 'disturbances' in regard to the Venezuelan currency, they have made attacks on the currency possible, and obscured those.

The government stated on state television the government has taken control of the bank to save it from bankrupcy. A new board of directors will be appointed by the government, lead by the Secretary of Finance Yomana Koteich.

Juan Carlos Escotet, the president of Banesco, has commented and said the charges are disproportional. Escotet lives in Spain, but he has promised to travel to Venezuela to aid his imprisoned executives.

https://beta.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/maduro-arresteert-bankbestuurders-en-neemt-grootste-private-bank-venezuela-over~b3d98cbcb/

[Dorsidwarf]

Smells like trying to pin current economic woes on a scapegoat so that people are more willing to get behind your attempts to fix the economy to me

[Teneb]

DISCLAIMER: I make no pretensions of being impartial, so do your research and don't believe me blindly!

Alright kiddos, it's time to necro this thread. Why? Because it's election time for Brasil! (Also Venezuela is in the shitter.)

What is the background for this election? Well, let's take it one-by-one:

-Economic crisis hit the country
-Dilma Rousseff refused to play the corruption game with Congress (the actual rulers of the country)
-So they decided to wreck the country further, pin it on her, and impeach her on a bullshit excuse.
-Once she was impeached they immediately legalized what they impeached her for and put her VP, Michel Temer, in her place.
-Turns out the Vampire is actually a horrible ruler, to no one's surprise.
-Also reactionaries are on the rise.
-Also also Venezuelans are flooding into the country from the north and tensions are on the rise in Roraima.
-Oh, and ex-President Lula was arrested not because of anything he actually did (though he is corrupt), but to take him out of the election since he expressed his interest in running.

So, all in all: a lovely time for elections!

But who are the contenders? Well, judges have decided that Lula cannot run, so instead we have these fine, fine folks (with handy wikipedia links!):

Álvaro Dias: a neoliberal back by PODE (Podemos / "We Can"). His running mate is Paulo Rabello de Castro, an economist from the PSC (Partido Social Cristão / "Social Christian Party") who thinks neoliberalism is totally a christian thing.

Cabo [Corporal] Daciolo: former military firefighter and current fascist is the candidate for the PATRI (Patriota / "Patriot") party. He's notable only for spouting in a debate that the leftists planned to create URSAL if they won. What is URSAL? Well, nobody knew until he explained that it is Union of Socialist Republics of Latin America, of course! His VP is Suelene Balduino from the same party, who is so notable she doesn't even have a wiki page in portuguese.

Ciro Gomes: backed by the PDT (Partido Democrata Trabalhista / "Democrat Labour Party"), he was actually pretty popular when candidates were announcing their intent to run. This dropped, hard, when he revealed his VP: Kátia Abreu, who is a notorious oligarch whose plantations are staffed by debt slaves. Ciro's political leaning is left, but still close to the centre.

Geraldo Alckmin: this more conservative neoliberal is actually a decent pick (and I do greatly dislike neolibs), running for PSDB (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira / "Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy") with his running mate as Ana Amélia Lemos from PP (Partido Progressista / "Progressive Party")

Guilherme Boulos: Something of an outsider, Boulos made his name as the leader o f the MTST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto / "Homeless Workers Movement") and is considered one of the top leftist picks around. He is the candidate of PSOL (Partido Socialismo e Liberdade / "Socialism and Liberty Party"), same party as his running mate Sônia Guajaja, notable for being the leader of amerindian activism groups.

Henrique Meirelles: formerly an executive for various banking institutions, he's got some weight in financial circles. Also rich as fuck. Also the candidate of MDB (Movimento Democrático Brasileiro / "Brazilian Democratic Movement"), the hegemonic party in congress, Temer's party and also the one with the biggest and strongest oligarchs. Also from MD is his VP, Germano Rigotto. Pretty much the non-reactionary, non-neoliberal conservative pick.

Jair Bolsonaro: Oh boy. This asshole. A strong reactionary fascist like Cabo Daciolo, except he's rich, had time to get entrenched in politics despite being utterly despised by other politicians, and also pretty much every poltically incorrect opinion you can imagine rolled into a single person. He bases his campaign on: stopping teaching kids to accept non-heterosexual sexualities ("They are corrupting our children! But I totally respects people's option to be gay, totally."), not being in any (known) corruption scandals (not because of any merit on his part, the other corrupt fucks just hate him that much), and cutting all funding to human rights stuff because "bandits need to be shot, not coddled". His party is PSL (Partido Social-Liberal / "Partido Social-Liberal") whose name is suspiciously like that of some other far-right historical party of certain historical notoriety. His VP is General Hamilton Mourão, from PRTB (Partido Renovador Trabalhista Brasileiro / "Brazilian Renewing Labour Party" (translation didn't turn out very well here)), who was not only openly racist in live tv, but actually thinks a new coup should happen.

João Amoedo: Is a banker and I get the feeling he wants to be a less-orange Trump. He's going with NOVO (Partido Novo / "New Party") and his running mate is Christian Lohbauer also from NOVO who has no wiki page so...

João Goulart Filho: from PPL (Partido Pátria Livre / "Free Fatherland Party"), is trying to ride on his deceased dad's reputation, given how João Goulart sr. was the last president before the military coup and was actually pretty ok before being deposed and assassinated. His running mate is Léo Alves also from PPL.

José Maria Eymael: Not a lot to say about him, to be honest. Only thing that elevates him from being generic is that he's the evangelical candidate and as such shares views with his neopentescopal base. His party is DC (Democracia Cristã / "Christian Democracy") whose name also pretty much described him. VP is Helvio Costa also from DC.

Fernando Haddad: is the candidate for PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores / "Workers' Party") since Lula is out. He'll be pretty much a stand-in for the ex-president. More interesting is his running mate Manuela d'Ávila from PCdoB (Partido Comunista do Brasil / "Comunist Party of Brasil"), who had previously indicated she wanted to be president herself.

Marina Silva: backed by REDE (Rede Sustentabilidade / "Sustainability Network") is an environmentalist, but otherwise a centrist. Notable for not having strong opinions outside environmental matters. It's kind of notorious, actually. Her VP is Eduardo Jorge from PV (Partido Verde / "Green Party") who... is also an environmentalist.

Finally we have Vera Lúcia who doesn't have a page. She, and her running mate Hertz Dias, are from PSTU (Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores Unificado / "Unified Workers' Socialist Party"), a party noted for its strong, some might say radical, syndicalist and fierce anticapitalist stances.



Whew, that was a pretty long write. Frankly, I am not too worried that most of the really bad ones in this list can actually do any more damage than Temer to the country because Congress is the actual ruler of Brasil, as proven with ex-president Dilma. What I'm worried about is the boost to reactionary morale that's going to happen regardless of Bolsonaro winning or not (which is unlikely, because polls indicate that roughly 40% of the population will absolutely never vote him regardless of opponent).

[Loud Whispers]

So the candidates are the rich, the ludicrously rich, the militiarists and the irrelevant

[WealthyRadish]

So if I'm understanding the electoral rules correctly, the two candidates with the most votes will move on to the second round? (assuming no majority)

I'm just curious if it's possible that you might end up with a choice exclusively between a priest of mammon or a cheeto fascist if the crowd is split badly enough. Do candidates normally drop out, or is there tons of strategic voting anyway where everyone knows the 2-3 possibilities for the second round?

[scriver]

Whew, that was a pretty long write.

Very interesting though!

[Teneb]

So the candidates are the rich, the ludicrously rich, the militiarists and the irrelevant

You forgot the marxist-troskyists.

So if I'm understanding the electoral rules correctly, the two candidates with the most votes will move on to the second round? (assuming no majority)

Pretty much.

Do candidates normally drop out

It's happened before, but the ones who were going to drop out have already done so.

or is there tons of strategic voting anyway where everyone knows the 2-3 possibilities for the second round?

There have been some surprises before. This one will be pretty cutthroat.

[ChairmanPoo]

So if I'm understanding the electoral rules correctly, the two candidates with the most votes will move on to the second round? (assuming no majority)

I'm just curious if it's possible that you might end up with a choice exclusively between a priest of mammon or a cheeto fascist if the crowd is split badly enough. Do candidates normally drop out, or is there tons of strategic voting anyway where everyone knows the 2-3 possibilities for the second round?

Didnt that happen in France not too long ago?

[smjjames]

So if I'm understanding the electoral rules correctly, the two candidates with the most votes will move on to the second round? (assuming no majority)

I'm just curious if it's possible that you might end up with a choice exclusively between a priest of mammon or a cheeto fascist if the crowd is split badly enough. Do candidates normally drop out, or is there tons of strategic voting anyway where everyone knows the 2-3 possibilities for the second round?

Didnt that happen in France not too long ago?

In the sense of the two major parties collapsing and it ending up being mostly a competition of the fringe, yes. Though it's also the system used in France I believe, as opposed to the system here in the US. Also, if you change it to priestess of Mammon, that's a pretty apt description of 2016 in the US.

[WealthyRadish]

The 2016-17 French election was what came to mind, but Trump winning the 2016 Republican primary is another example of how crowded fields of candidates can distort the result. Trump certainly didn't have anywhere close to a majority of support in the party at the time, but had a consistently large plurality of like 20-30% that was enough to win on the margins while the other candidates split the remainder (and did so less consistently). If I were picking a system to handle crowded fields, a 2-round ranked vote would probably be better, barring something ridiculous like a double elimination tournament that votes every candidate against every other candidate (more or less).

[Loud Whispers]

Hope you guys enjoy the incineration of irreplaceable relics of human and natural history because 20 million artefacts just caught fire in Brazil's national museum

[scriver]

Well. Fuck.

[Teneb]

Pissed doesn't even begin to describe my current mood.