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Argentina moves to the right

The loon/clown headlines will flow. But he's unlocked the box. The langage he uses is very reminiscent of the dismal propaganda of the military years that led to so much death. My earliest childhood memories. Not that I think that's going to be repeated in any depth, but it gives me a nasty shudder.

The Falklands bollocks is a distraction, but obviously much seized upon by British media and commentators. He's almost designer made for the British red tops.
 
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Saw someone pointing this out and it does appear to be the case... might well just be a coincidence, but isn't it a remarkable coincidence that he just so happens to be following precisely that number of people on instagram?

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he's since unfollowed someone, so only at 1487 now. was a silly stretch in any case.

anyway back to the real world where the Falklands are a complete irrelevance.

Food prices are going up already -- seems their prices were being held below inflation by previous government more than I realized, too. In some cases, these price rises are 50%, on basic goods like milk, and immediate. That's a lot.


translated a couple of paragraphs here:

Sources in the market informed this newspaper that consumer goods giants experienced increases ranging from 10 to 50 percent. The following companies are included: Mastellone, the company that produces La Serenísima milk, announced a 50 percent price hike, as did the personal hygiene manufacturer Colgate. The multinational Unilever, known for its cleaning and food products, implemented a 40 percent increase, while Arcor communicated increases of up to 35 percent. Procter and Gamble raised prices by 30 percent, the same margin as the American company Mondelez. Coca Cola provided a list with increases of up to 35 percent.

The reason given by the companies to supermarkets is that the end of price agreements is approaching because Milei, the elected president, has already announced that this system no longer applies. These agreements not only include Fair Prices but also freezing agreements and gradual increases in other sectors, such as fuels, meats, vegetables, and medicines.
 
Is it possible those companies were holding prices down ahead of the election so as not to cause more upset with the incumbent government? I can’t see many wanting some unstable maniac running the show. Corporate election interference is a thing.
 
Anecdotal stuff.

Sprog #3's best friend's mum is from Argentina - she's been here 15 years, lived all over Europe, still has family in Argentina.

She was talking last night at tennis (yeah, I know, MC as fuck...) that her family have been stockpiling food for months, that stuff like butter and cheese have gone off the scale, and that she and her hubby are going to have to send money to support them - that the family budget (half a dozen, multi-generational) only covers about 3 days food a week.

Personally, I think China will make some kind of economic/geo-political play that envolves Argentina's natural resources being further mortgaged - I don't see the US or Europe having the ability/appetite to assist in a recovery.
 
The crazy thing about it all is that Argentina is so absurdly rich in natural resources, and has a relatively tiny population (smaller than England's, but 21 times as much land area!) .... for this reason it is (or at least was according to a classification published by the FAO in 2010), the most self-sufficient country in the world in terms of food supply:
 
Anecdotal stuff.

Sprog #3's best friend's mum is from Argentina - she's been here 15 years, lived all over Europe, still has family in Argentina.

She was talking last night at tennis (yeah, I know, MC as fuck...) that her family have been stockpiling food for months, that stuff like butter and cheese have gone off the scale, and that she and her hubby are going to have to send money to support them - that the family budget (half a dozen, multi-generational) only covers about 3 days food a week.

Personally, I think China will make some kind of economic/geo-political play that envolves Argentina's natural resources being further mortgaged - I don't see the US or Europe having the ability/appetite to assist in a recovery.
Given the way the US and UK have assisted other countries to recover over the course of this century I suspect any approach made would be met with a swift thanks but no thanks from Buenos aires
 
Personally, I think China will make some kind of economic/geo-political play that envolves Argentina's natural resources being further mortgaged - I don't see the US or Europe having the ability/appetite to assist in a recovery.

China appear to be chomping at the bit ready to get their teeth stuck into Argentina (all those resources, I wonder why) but Milei has an awful lot to go back on for that to happen. Which, given he's an unstable, erratic buffoon might well happen.

But I don't see why a Trumpian US wouldn't want an arse-licker from the Americas. Perhaps Milei only has to hold on for 12 months.
 
Is it the same people behind trump that have been pushing this guy, or has it happened all by itself? I know Bolsanaro was put in place with some serious whatsapp skullduggery and had links with Bannon types. Am I seeing a grand global right-wing conspiracy or is it all in my mind? Twats like this come and go, though some are quite hard to flush (Netanyahu, Berlusconi, Erdogan etc.)
 
China appear to be chomping at the bit ready to get their teeth stuck into Argentina (all those resources, I wonder why) but Milei has an awful lot to go back on for that to happen. Which, given he's an unstable, erratic buffoon might well happen.

Will be the response if China thinks it's getting it's feet in Sam's backyard.

Unlike Russia spheres of influence the US can enforce the monroe doctrine.
 
Is it the same people behind trump that have been pushing this guy, or has it happened all by itself? I know Bolsanaro was put in place with some serious whatsapp skullduggery and had links with Bannon types. Am I seeing a grand global right-wing conspiracy or is it all in my mind? Twats like this come and go, though some are quite hard to flush (Netanyahu, Berlusconi, Erdogan etc.)
Spent an evening in the company of a Bannnonite doing his rounds in Chang Mai last year. Most odd.
 

Will be the response if China thinks it's getting it's feet in Sam's backyard.

Unlike Russia spheres of influence the US can enforce the monroe doctrine.


Lol, this is a joke right? You think an anachronistic 200 year old 'policy' that deals with Europe (not China) will stop things?

Trump couldn't even stop the US losing out in the new deal he did with China. All that happened was US importers were far worse off because of tariffs and China imported only 58% of US goods they'd agreed to. Which was less than they bought before the deal.
 
It's a sign of eccentricity although there is a substantial Jewish community in BA in particular, pro Jewish or pro Israel politics are not a vote winner, despite the substantial Arab (ex Ottoman, Christian, Jewish, Muslim) populations.
 
It's a sign of eccentricity although there is a substantial Jewish community in BA in particular, pro Jewish or pro Israel politics are not a vote winner, despite the substantial Arab (ex Ottoman, Christian, Jewish, Muslim) populations.
It's a sign of a lot more than eccentricity.
 
Decent LRB piece:

All this may sound familiar. The same neoliberal recipe was applied in the 1990s under Menem, contributing to the pile-up of economic woes that ended in crisis in 2001-02. But this time the surge of austerity and privatisation is likely to have a much more authoritarian cast. It’s telling that the security services are the one part of the state Milei has promised to expand. His coalition includes the ultra-conservative Fuerza Republicana, originally a vehicle for a former general who led vicious counterinsurgency operations in Tucumán province in the late 1970s. Milei’s vice president, Victoria Villarruel, is the daughter of a soldier who served in Tucumán and the Falklands/Malvinas, while her uncle was stationed at a clandestine detention centre run by the junta that ruled the country between 1976 and 1983. According to human rights groups and organisations representing victims’ families, the military killed or disappeared as many as thirty thousand people during the so-called Dirty War. Villarruel made her name by questioning the country’s hard-won reckoning with state violence, calling instead for a ‘complete memory’ of the dictatorship – meaning that blame should be shifted away from the military and back to the left-wing movements they repressed. Her presence on the Milei ticket points to another reason for the generational differences in voting patterns. For younger voters, the dictatorship is ancient history. But those old enough to remember it take very seriously the injunction of the 1984 truth commission’s report, ‘Nunca Más’ – Never Again.

The pattern of centre-right parties aligning with an insurgent far right won’t be news to residents of Brazil, the US, Italy, or indeed the UK. In that sense, recent events in Argentina conform to an ugly existing trend, in which the multiplying crises of liberal democracy produce political breaks to the right and attempts to impose ever harsher versions of the same economic medicine. Argentina’s centre right are seemingly betting that they can use Milei to further their own ends, but this may prove a catastrophically irresponsible wager. As Latin America’s experiences of dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s show, when the centre right and right converge the latter tends to drag the former along.
 
Just in case anyone was wondering what his foreign policy would be. This will isolate Argentina within Latin America, which is largely anti-Zionist, but evidently regional solidarity is not high on the priority list:

 
Sounding horrifically like the early stages of a military dictatorship to me ....

Unfortunately, the country has form.

I can't pretend to understand why they elected him. They've had a fucked economy for years without managing to elect a fascist. I spent a little time there, so I suppose my sample is small, but everyone* I met there was so lovely, so chilled, so helpful. No open signs of fascism, or desired fascism. It was 15 years ago now though.

*not quite everyone. Argentinian border guards were some of the roughest I've come across, in complete contrast to the Chilean border post down the (mountain) road who didn't seem to give a fuck.
 
More interviews on the situation in Argentina:
 
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