General Politics thread

What happened in Bolivia is surely a coup, but Morales’ expedient of going to the non-independent courts where they made the fascinating discovery that term limits in office (as per the constitution he had championed) violated his human rights, after voters rejected his proposal to abolish them in a referendum, is precisely the authoritarian measure for putatively enlightened reasons that reactionaries find useful.

Left Latin American governments of the future should also really attempt an economic program based on something other than fleeting commodity booms and currency manipulation.  I don’t claim to know precisely what, but something else.

This woman’s my hero.  She’s the same age or younger than the police and she’s chastising them like the mental children they are.

He posted an uber-festive Xmas greeting on Twitter sometime thereafter and I haven’t heard about him since.  What a character.

I often think of a certain report published in February—one among several excellent others by Anatoly Kurmanaev—on Venezuela’s economic collapse; the worst in a half century not due to civil war.

Maduro adopted a dollarized liberalization programme before the pandemic that abandons all but the wealthy elite in Caracas, which is the only centrally governed place left in the country. The Bolivarian revolution failed on its own terms, and it’s absurd for North American leftists to defend him.  It’s right to acknowledge the role that US sanctions have played in the devastation, but they don’t remotely exculpate him in the way his apologists imagine.  If you don’t avoid or sufficiently mitigate easily anticipated foreign aggression consequent on a given agenda, you’ve failed at statecraft.

I need a place to put this link and I don't want to create a browser bookmark: a commenter who attempted to engage with libertarian writing and notes the highlights. www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/08/erik-visits-an-american-grave-part-665#comment-5036472725

New Zealand had their national election today, and it's just as charming and self-congratulatory as you'd expect a New Zealand election to be.



Global superstar, local pretty solid to good Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is romping to re-election on the back of "hey, guys, remember how I beat covid? Watch CNN for like ten minutes then get back to me on how happy you are with my leadership". Meanwhile the National Party is so womped that they've temporarily made their Twitter account private so the public will stop telling them how womped they are. This is not wholly unexpected, the National Party went through three leaders in 2020 trying to find someone who will get them a bit less womped. In the end they settled on a disposable fall woman so the man they choose to replace her won't be damaged by getting utterly womped in an election.

It’s early, but we’re calling it: Jacinda Ardern will lead the next government
As of 7.20pm, Labour is on track for twice as many seats as National.

Any hopes of a nail-biter election have dissipated just a few minutes after polls closed – at least as far as the biggest party of the next government is concerned.

This is my outsider's perspective, repulsionist would probably have a better idea.

Major
Labour - Centre-left social democracy. Jacinda Ardern came into power promising a more ambitious progressive agenda than they would usually pursue, and... well, she tried? As of this triumphant victory she'll have a much greater mandate to enact her policies so we'll see how that goes.
National - Centre-right (classical) liberal conservatism. The other big party, ran the country for a decade before Ardern came to power. They've been playing hot potato trying to find a leader to match Ardern's star power, and Judith Collins was not it. Have been reduced to a smaller opposition than before.

Minor
ACT New Zealand - Right to centre-right classical liberal libertarianism. They don't care about the other stuff they just want rich people to have the personal and economic liberty to get hella richer. Won a bigger share of the pie with their biggest right competitors shitting the bed.
Greens - Left green progressive social democracy. Part of Ardern's ruling coalition, they somehow both increased their vote share and became less influential this election. They have more people elected, but also Ardern elected enough people she can command a majority on her own. But they had a good term as Labour's progressive shoulder angel.
Maori Party - Centre to centre-left indigenous rights. Formed a coalition with the centre-right Nationals from 2008-17, until they were creamed by Labour in the 2017 election. They compete across the seven Maori electorates which overlap with the rest of the electorates and only declared indigenous voters can vote in. And it seems like they got one dude across the line this time, which is one more than they had before.
NZ First - Centrist populist nationalism. Effectively a vanity party formed by a perennially popular Winston Peters. He started politics as a National but has used his influence in a mixed-member proportional representation voting system to act as a kingmaker and form coalitions with Labour and Nationals over the years. Served as Jacinda Ardern's deputy Prime Minister and conservative shoulder angel since 2017, until voters decided they'd rather see Jacinda rule alone.

Wondering if anyone has a good sense of what is going on in Nigeria currently? With the US election and the pandemic sucking most of the oxygen out of the news cycle I haven't heard anything about it but saw some stuff on Twitter about police brutality against protestors being directed by the ruling party. I googled it and read some press but hadn't heard much on it so was wondering if any of you might have seen anything about it?

Reviving the thread before the Monday morning EST news of Russia invading Ukraine.

OK, so, why is Eritrea of all places backing Russia right now?

I periodically forget that he exists and I'm happier during those times.