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Now, I'm not saying that I've been my following my country's political situation intensely, but even with the little I know it's a complete mess. So I thought to share stuff I see to at least try to make sense of all this (feel free to ask questions btw). Also, there will be lots of memes, as making them is practically Our Way(tm) to deal with news nowadays.

First of all, for the last eight months or so an investigative team has been negotiating with one of the biggest brazilian companies (Odebrecht) for information on bribes and kickbacks in exchange for lower sentences on their CEOs. Rumor has it that around 200 politicians are implicated. This is the backdrop against which panic (and hilarity) is ensuing.

The latest news is so convoluted I'm kinda failing to make sense of it all. Apparently the (as of yesterday ex-)Minister of the Secretary of Government (basically in charge of negotiating with congress) Geddel Vieira Lima tried to pressure ex-Minister of Culture Marcelo Calero (in portuguese) over the approval for construction of a luxury building on Salvador (why would the Minister of Culture have something to do with that? it's because it has been blocked for disturbing the city's historical center (it was founded on 1549)). The federal agency had blocked the construction when Salvador's Mayor Antônio Carlos Magalhães Neto (in portuguese) had already authorized it (fun fact: ACM Neto, as the name implies, is the grandson of the notorious dictatorship politician Antônio Carlos Magalhães, which used to say he won elections with "a bag of money in one hand and a whip on the other").

Also, Caleiro has said that he recorded President Temer himself pressuring him on the same subject. And of course, Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes and 2014 presidential candidate (who almost won) Aécio Neves are now bashing Caleiro himself and deflecting blame from the president. Neves went so far as to say Caleiro should be investigated (fun fact: Neves is the grandson of Tancredo Neves, considered instrumental in ending Brazil's dictatorship).

This all started happening in the 19th (of this month, yes). Yesterday Geddel resigned. Things are happening so fast I almost missed this whole story. In fact people are mobilizing for Temer to be impeached over this (yes, another impeachment).

In more local news, the same overarching investigation arrested two ex-Rio de Janeiro (the state, not the city) Governors: Sérgio Cabral (accused of accepting bribes) and Anthony Garotinho (accused of buying votes) in less than one week from each other. Garotinho had some blood pressure problem soon after being arrested and was sent to a hospital, after he recovered a little he was sent to jail. A video of him suddenly getting angry and trying to punch someone while still in a stretcher being carried to the ambulance that would send him to jail has inspired lots of memes.

Also, recently elected Rio de Janeiro (the city, not the state) Mayor Crivela has visited Israel and when he came back said that Rio should "be walled just like Jerusalem" (which is causing outrage for obvious reasons).

This is all I can think of now, but no doubt there's plenty more, and every day it seems something or other pops up these days.

Since I'm not really knowledgeable in this area, I've got to ask, how common is that?

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/15/16978049-russian-nuclear-bombers-intercepted-near-guam

U.S. military officials say "it's highly unusual but not unprecedented" that Russian bombers would fly training missions in the vicinity of Guam. According to one official, "It wasn't provocative but it certainly got our attention." U.S. long-range B-52 bombers, also capable of carrying nuclear weapons, are based at Guam.

Since Vladimir Putin reclaimed the Russian presidency, U.S. officials said the number of such flights in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska have increased, but encounters with U.S. aircraft have remained "generally very professional."

The two Russian Bear bombers flew near Guam at about the same time President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union message. Military officials refused to speculate about the timing.

Never, NEVER go to Tucson. Whatever the hell that is, never go there.

So, I got tired of lurking and decided to post something; also, I think I'm going to try posting something relevant. So, if it's to be relevant then it should probably be about the only actual opinion I hold about the PD and the BIP (you know, besides liking them) - that they are at their core philosophy works, because they actually make a concrete philosophical point IMO. I'm a philosophy undergrad, and I've only started studying philosophy this semester, but having studied a little bit about ancient philosophy I think similar points have been made far, far away in the past, going back to maybe Gorgias the sophist (ok, not reeealy a philosopher, but still): the guy tried to prove that nothing existed and stuff, and then at the end of the argument he said he only wrote that because he was bored (someone around here joked about him being the First Troll). Ok, maybe it's not that much similar to PD, but it's still a step in the direction towards it. IIRC he even thought that there's no such thing as knowledge, only opinions.

Actually, I've thought a lot about what would be a "classical" Discordian position in philosophy and this is what I came up with (I may just be posting some ignorant bullshit here since I haven't studied deeply any of the philosophers I'm talking about):

Discordia would probably be the fifth answer to the question "The world is absurd, what are you gonna do about it?"
Kierkegaard identified two answers, either kill yourself or take the leap of faith to religion;
Sartre said "you should construct the meaning to your own life"
Camus said "you just live with it, there's even no need to construct meaning"
and a Discordian would say "use it to your own purposes", which is I think a refreshing, original position compared to the other four; and probably why I'm interested on it.

Ok, so I'm going to stop posting now since I'm starting to feel that I'm rambling about some possibly irrelevant stuff, but I'd still like to know what do you think about it.