The Last Post Game!!!!

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Last _{like Chavez?} Post

[Swatopluk]

I thought he metastasized.

Last Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Last _{he was a cancer, all right} Post

[Swatopluk]

Whether have or be is more appropriate there, is not up for me to decide.
Given that the usual choice is between plague and cholera in SA, either* was not the worst option.

*be or have

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[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

The junta in Argentina certainly did more damage, and his level of corruption wasn't unheard of.

Last _{but compared with his contemporaries he was* the worst} Post

*I get that the regime is still there and may remain there for the foreseeable future, yet he was the figurehead.

[Swatopluk]

Would you have preferred the US approved putsch government that tried to unseat him?

Last _{serious not rhetorical question} Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

My suspicion is that it would have been quite bad but possibly not as bad as his reign as a whole. I don't know if the US actually tried to place an specific figurehead or simply wanted anyone "on their side", what I know is that it was so absurd that a fair portion of coup participants backed down immediately.

Last _{bad right - bad left} Post

[Swatopluk]

Well, it's just uninformed me but personally I'd prefer a junta that gives at least a bit of excrement about the poor than the usual 'are there no death squads' Scrooges, if nothing else is to choose from. And cynic as a I am, any US approved junta in SA (even in the unlikely case that the US did not actually engineer the coup) has by default my deep mistrust.

Last _{again that's just armchair analysis from far away on my part} Post

[Griffin NoName]

I've always thought armchairs are over-analysed.

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[Swatopluk]

The anus is usually in close contact with the armchair

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[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Well, it's just uninformed me but personally I'd prefer a junta that gives at least a bit of excrement about the poor than the usual 'are there no death squads' Scrooges, if nothing else is to choose from.

In theory I would agree, in practice... is a different thing all together. For instance a good thing the dearly departed did was to provide healthcare to the poor, which is in itself a very good thing. He also gives food to the poor (the ones that supported him anyway) and that also sounds like a good thing, provided that the situation isn't permanent, which is the actual case, then what you have is a large portion of the population completely dependent on the state, and that doesn't help anyone. Forgive me if this sounds like right wing talking points, but I happen to believe that there is some truth to some of those arguments, IMO directly giving stuff (ie, food, clothes) to the poor long term does help keep them poor and dependent. OTOH create jobs and schools and they will help themselves.

Last * Post

*Where I disagree fundamentally with the rightwingers is on the hypothesis that this happens in a vacuum, that the state cannot be involved, and that limited assistance is out of the question. If the state is to spend funds then be Keynesian about it, employ the poor building their own houses, for instance, give them a salary they can live of, and nurture their young with childcare and healthcare. It may not help 100% but helping 70-80% sounds like a good deal (besides there will always be holdouts). That is IMO a far better investment long term, instead of giving food and artificially keeps prices down choking the supply/demand process.

[Swatopluk]

So you think it is primarily panem et circenses?

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[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I'm afraid so.

Last _{and having a warmongering megalomaniac dead next door helps me sleep better} Post

[Swatopluk]

I thought that was the default option in that part of the world

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[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Fortunately that isn't the case anymore, the old fascist dictators are gone, and while populism is alive and well, the last serious incident was between Ecuador and Peru on their poorly defined border.

Last _{you could argue that Colombia's Uribe was a warmonger but we do have an ongoing internal war for the past 50 years} Post