Regardless of what happens tomorrow in Massachusetts, Chilean voters have clearly rejected Obama’s agenda. Am I right?
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.
Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.
When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.
I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.
If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!
You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.
I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.
If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.
Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)
Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.
fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)
Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?
You cannot love your country only when you win.
The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.
Not loving this new fraud based economy.
When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.
Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.
Let there be snark.
No one could have predicted…
A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.
Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.
You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.
Shut up, hissy kitty!
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Brachiator
Si, amigo.
beltane
Oh great, a billionaire Pinochet clone invokes Obama and JFK in his victory speech. Thanks for making me ill.
Dannie22
Is this the Return of Pinochet? Or perhaps Pinochet’s Revenge?
asiangrrlMN
You’re just rolling with the good news today, aren’t you, DougJ? This gives me a big grumpy. Harumph.
valdivia
DougJ a thread I can self promote on! So I have not written up my take on this and have a place holder instead on my new blog but look for it tomorrow or late late tonight (I am moving tomorrow and have to finish packing otherwise I would be ranting there all day). The winner is NOT the second coming of Pinochet. Shortly, the two bigs questions are: is this guy a Berlusconi or a Bloomberg? and how much will Pinera be owned by the right and how ready are they to govern as mature participants.
and you think they won’t say that this has implications for Obama? I already saw a Yahoo headline saying this will make his diplomacy in South America difficult. That is so deeply stupid I cannot even address it yet. You think our media is bad on our own politics–you have no idea how bad they are talking about *my region’s* politics.
mr. whipple
What did Obama do now, boycott their sea bass?
The Raven
@valdivia: There’s a psionic barrier at the southern border of the USA that usually prevents USers from even naming the rest of America.
I hope you’re right that Pinera is not another Pinochet. But, Latin American politics, brrr.
Joshua Norton
The upcoming Sunday talking heads script:
1. If Brown wins it’s due to everyone hating the Dems with the heat of a thousand suns. New York is next to fall.
2. If Coakley wins it’s due to massive voter fraud and ACORN.
You read it here first.
General Winfield Stuck
Let’s ring Kissinger for his take, if the old blood sucking buzzard is still taking up space on the planet.
Keith G
Huh?
Since Thurs., I have been going to great measures to avoid news, though I do slip up out of habit.
For a while the news had been, at best irritating. Then the quake. My iPod has been filled with comedy podcasts and I am currently loading Youtube comedy clips on my laptop.
Chile, Coakley, and suffering people the world over will have to wait for a few days while I look for reasons to smile.
Davis X. Machina
Raven, quitcherbitch’.
When you ask USers to name the rest of America In my experience they can reliably be counted on to produce not only Alaska but also Hawai’i.
(The latter is in a mysterious box 1300 mi. southwest of San Diego. Or it was in my classroom.)
valdivia
@The Raven:
Yep, our politics are worse than a Garcia marquez novel.
As for Pinera: He is definitely not a Pinochet. I really do not mean any disrespect to anyone here but the facile right wing guy=Pinochet and left wing guy=Castro/Guevara is just lazy. And this is one of the reasons I started my blog. Ok enough pimping. Now to your point: what does the election mean? There are deep questions about the parties that make up the coalition Pinera ran on but he is very much a guy used to running his own show so the right wing coalition may or may not play a large role in his governing. This may be good if doubts about the commitment of the parties to the democratic process prove real but it is also a problem because Chile is the one country where the party system works and personalistic parties have not emerged. If Pinera proves to be that kind of president, than I think that is bad news institutionally. Much to digest with his win, and much to keep one’s eye on.
Maude
@General Winfield Stuck: He ain’t never gonna die.
New Yorker
Yeah, seriously, a conservative candidate in a democratic election is not Pinochet. Let me know when he starts murdering political opponents by the thousands, and then the label will be apt.
if it’s the same article I saw, I think it meant that Pinera’s diplomacy will be tough, since he’ll have to deal leftists across South America, some benign (Uruguay, Argentina), and some not so much (the Bolivarian Buffoon in Caracas).
valdivia
@New Yorker:
I only saw the headline on a feed so maybe they were talking about Pinera. The truth is that everyone is now having a very hard time with Mr Chavez, Kirchner in Arg. is in her own mess and Lula is well positioned so I think Pinera will only have trouble with Chavez but that is nothing new. I certainly don’t expect him to behave all Uribe with Chavez. Bachelet herself had a ton of trouble dealing with him and she was a soshulist.
Comrade Kevin
If you want to read something about this, I suggest you go read Marc Cooper‘s post about it.
The Raven
@Davis X. Machina:
LOL, er, krawkrawkraw.
The Raven
@valdivia: I hope you and Cooper are correct. Pinera sounds like a country-club Republican to me, and those can be incredibly destructive, all the while keeping their hands lily-white clean.
valdivia
@The Raven:
well I think the US comparision doesn’t exactly work. But mainly we *have no idea* what the right in power looks like in Chile and we are about to find out. I am not bullish on the right btw, but I think Pinera is really bound by a pretty strong consensus in Chile about what is accepted policy and what isn’t. My two cents for now: pay attention to what Andres Velasco says in the future about the Pinera administration. He was the Finance minister under Bachelet and probably a future president. If he starts sounding the alarm about changes to the safety net, then you can worry, otherwise we have to wait and see.
Ps the Cooper piece id pretty solid. I think there is much more to be said about what this really means for Chile but I will only get a crack at it later today.
sturunner
Michelle had an final approval rating of ~ 80%. One of my family members spends time each year in Chile for the US GVT would largely agree w/valdivia.
What we should be concerned about in Chile is apparently very low turnout among those who barely remember the bad years.
Dr. I. F. Stone
Clearly the average Chilean is infinitely wiser and smarter than the typical duffus that clings to this blog like a snail after some poop from another animal.
New Yorker
So young Chileans are just as maddeningly apathetic as young Americans? Huh, maybe it’s a sign of mature democracy when a sense of entitlement sets in.
What the fuck???
Is Mr. Stone one of our 3rd-string wingnut trolls or something? Is he praising Chileans for electing a right-winger? Should I mention that the current left-wing president has approval ratings of about 80% in the hope that his head explodes?
OriGuy
Yes.
SATSQ
Now why he/she is using the name of the late left-wing journalist, is not such a simple question. Probably because blogger aimai is Stone’s granddaughter. Pretty tacky, IMO.
mds
Also, the effect of “We approve of your party platform, but you have imperfectly implemented it, so we’re voting for the party that opposes it instead.” See also: European elections where the philosophy responsible for the global economic implosion gets rewarded at the polls. Or Massachusetts. (Yes, yes, I know it’s not all about us.)
(And yes, Pinera has promised to carry over social policies from his predecessor, even though a “business-friendly” approach is likely to defund same. Why he sounds like quite the compassionate conservative.)