TheGreekOne
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Raul, who would have thought that you would be in Greece while History is in the making, right?
The symbolism of OCHI (no) is of great significance to Greeks. It refers to the refusal of PM Ioannis Metaxas (a Fascist nonetheless!) to Mussolini’s ultimatum to surrender while the Italian Fascist troops were entering Greece in 1941. (Of course, don’t expect Tsipras’ left government to have this appear in their political lingo.) It also refers to the recent refusal of President Anastasiades of Cyprus, who called for the refusal of turning the Greek controlled Cypriot Democracy to a confederation with the Turkish controlled Northern Cyprus via a referendum organized by the UN.
On the other hand, the symbolism of NE (yes) refers to a recent period in the Greek History, when the majority of MP’s from ND and PASOK with a clear happy smirk on their gloutonous faces, were voting “AYE TO EVERYTHING”, an expression used in the Parliament to indicate their total support to austerity and unquestioning verification of “Memorandums 1 & 2”, the policy of blind cooperation and submission to Troika and Germany. “Aye to everything” has become the expression to describe the collaborators, during the previous government era.
The choice of NE (yes) is very difficult to defend. Austerity has failed and this is clear to the vast majority of Greeks. Furthermore, during the early austerity period, people blamed the collaborating politicians for this destructive policy. Ironically, it is now their own turn to either reject austerity forever or become accomplishes to the crime committed against their own country, families and their own selves.
Junker, Merkel and their local representatives will definitely try to turn this to a pro or con Euro and European Union voting, in an effort to turn the pro-EU crowd to vote en masse for the new austerity measures and policy (aka “Memorandum 3”), just for the immense privilege of remaining vassals of the Eurogang and being b*ttf***ed by them on a daily basis. And of course claiming the higher moral ground and putting the blame on Tsipras and the lazy-evil-Greek-scoundrels-who-live-beyond-their-means in any case.
However, their task is a very difficult one. First of all, unfortunately, propaganda is a tool incapable of forcing people killing themselves. It has it limits and even Dr. Goebbels tells us so. His modern students however, seem to forget that, given their initial success and all that. The same goes for blackmailing or terror tactics. Good at first, useless as the time goes by.
Secondly, there isn’t enough time for them to act. Tsipras took them by surprise and they don’t have the opportunity nor the luxury of time to turn the public opinion to their favor via lies, terror, more lies and more terror. Tthat is the reason why Tsipras didn’t go for general elections, as expected and chose the referendum – declaring elections requires an announcement at least a month in advance, which would allow Junker and his minions to scare the s&*t out of the Greek pensioners, the largest pro-EU conservative group of voters, into “voting for Europe and the common good”.
Thirdly, the preliminary polls show a high percentage against the Troika’s ultimatum and demands. The vast majority of Greeks seems to prefer the heroic stand and not the shameful unconditional surrender, without a fight. I won’t go into details, but if this is true, it is safe to assume that Tsipras has prior knowledge to this before making his move.
As a result, should Greeks choose to say Nay to Troika’s ultimatum, things will never be the same in this country, any more. Austerity would be dead in the water and the conditions for a Grexit would open up. The old policies and politicians would suddenly become old news. If on the other hand, if they say Aye, then things will also never be the same again. Greeks won’t have anyone else to blame for but themselves and it will be very entertaining to see how Troika, plus Merkel and the good Dr. Schäuble will be able to implement their 15.5 billion euro austerity policy in a highly volatile and chaotic environment. The answer is they won’t be able to and they know it. They only care in scoring one to that cheeky Tsipras and the “Bolsheviks” and nothing else. In the process, they would destroy Greece out of whim, to “make an example” for the rest of their victims.PS. There is a question should Troika chooses to retract their ultimatum and final demands, just to trap Tsipras, leaving him with his own 8 billion euro austerity proposals (the one he used to trap everyone and make Junker grab Dieselboom’s @$$ on camera claiming “We did it!” ). I wonder how “serious” and “adult” would this make them, then. And how fast, in how many picoseconds, would their illusion of power collapse before the eyes of the whole world. History is in the making, folks! Grab a seat and lots of popcorn!
“It’s the Geopolitics, stupid!” – Vladimir Putin
As the Greek Issue reality show reaches a climax and as we approach the point where kicking the can further down the road won’t just cut it anymore, the fog parts and we start to see the hidden agendas and crypto-realities revealing and aligning themselves, as the great cogs of History start to move once again, producing reality shifts of enormous proportions.
In an amazing, earth-shuttering, world-changing statement, Putin said in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that “it is now in the hands of the Greek People to decide which Union and which Zone they wish to be part of.” This is something that can only be interpreted as an invitation for Greece to join the Eurasian Union and get all the funding it needs there from the BRICS bank. If this came to be, the tectonic ripples would hit the US global policy more than a San Andreas’s Fault collapsing and producing Hollywood Level Events, ever would. This is the reason Obama intervenes and demands a solution to this issue, on a nearly daily basis now. Check the G7 meetings near you, for more details.
One only wanders what’s really on the European leaders’ minds when they push Greece that much and that hard, giving ultimatums that involve implementing twice the austerity they demanded from the previous Vidkun Quisling government… oops, I meant Antonis Samaras government. That’s right, the unrealistic “take it or leave it” ultimatum that came to pass and nothing happened, was not based on any of the previous negotiations whatsoever and demanded austerity measures that would kill the Hellenic Republic in a few weeks. As a result, Tsipras refused and didn’t pay the IMF and if pushed more, would certainly move to stop paying up. Did our illustrious Euroleaders actually fail to see this, or didn’t know that the power they had until now on the puny Greeks derived from their local representatives, i.e. the political parties, politicians, journalists and the Media, and the money that financed a huge – and now failing – propaganda machine? Are the glorious Euroleaders of the Eurolands actually Idiotic, Inept or Insane? It’s the question on everybody’s minds.
And then, in flash of genius, you suddenly realize that Wolfgang Schäuble, the Official Spokesperson for the German Elites (TM), is one of the main proponents of German Revanchism, the political movement to restore Germany’s pre-Stalingrad power and the remaking of a new glorious 1000 year old Reich. And then your attention shifts to the 70 thousand plus US and NATO troops stationed in Germany, that many Germans view as an occupation force, rather than a protection force against the Soviets. You see, there are no Soviets left anymore, so why are they there…
Well, in case you blinked and just missed it, good old Doktor Schäuble just throw sand in the US Hegemon’s cogs, by forcing Greece into eventually abandoning the Euro (but not necessarily the EU) and joining the EAU. And the crucial questions are: Did he con the Europeans and the Americans into believing he wants the same things as they do, while at the same time having a secret agenda of his own and gaining a hundred billion on the side for his bosses, out of his Greek piracy victims? Is this considered business or an act of piracy? Was there a new Yalta Accord, splitting Greece vertically into two geopolitical spheres of influence, none of which includes the USA? Have all these players, at some point in time, secretly signed for the mighty Eurasia, the geopolitical vision of Professor Alexander Dugin for these parts of the world? Does this new narrative involve shipping BMWs and coffee makers from Frankfurt to Mumbai, Beijing and Vladivostok on Ultra High Speed Maglev Trains along the new Silk Road? Can this explain why Ukraine and ISIS has happened? Can it tell us why the moderate (until now) and liberal Albanian PM Edi Rama suddenly says he dreams of a Greater Albania, splitting the Balkans horizontally and why Albanian Kosovar UCK gunmen have terrorized the good citizens of Kumanovo, where the extension of TurkStream, would pass, via Greece?
I can’t honestly tell you if these are the actual plans of men and mice. All this is more of an educated guess, than anything. Unfortunately, most of these stories involve techno-narcissistic fantasies of Ponzi digi-currencies, credit cards for everyday paperless transactions, High Intensity algo Transactions, multi-Quadrillion dollar derivatives and other cyber-autoerotic banker-financier robber-baron Panopticon dreams of absolute power. They also include ultra-high capital-intensive projects like maglevs (instead of camels) and other fantastic future technologies that rely on perpetual TBTF shadow financing that would somehow solve all problems and lead us straight into a glorious corporatist iFuture. But seeing it from a point of view of a citizen of a country just about to become the new Syria or Ukraine, I bet that none of these fantasies take into account events like all-out-wars, depleting natural resources, banking Armageddons, mass death, famine, poverty, revolts, revolutions, elite behadings, an IS presence in North Africa and roller-coaster oil prices. Well, it should be obvious by now that Futureland is not really Mankind’s future, either that being the Western or the Eastern version of it. Or did you blink again and missed the collapse of our civilization happening all around you? You see, there isn’t enough affordable oil to power all these porn servers forever… As Rudolf Clausius showed us in the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy of an isolated system always increases. And civilizations are thermodynamic phenomena which die when energy dies.
Well, Schäuble believes he has the right to meddle, because of the previous Goverments, who allowed Germany and Europe to interfere to such an extent, that all pretext was gone. During Samaras’ era, the collaborating Greek MSM happily parroted our beloved Reichskanzler Schäuble’s angry orders and threats to the Greek people, ad nauseum, every single day, 24/7. (Big Brother, anyone?) We even had a Gauleiter, a Reich’s Regional Governor in Greece! He was Herr Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, who was a vice-minister in the German Federal Government and was placed as the head of the “overseeing body” that would control every Greek minister on a daily basis, based in Athens. Fuchtel would bark orders to the Greek Ministers indirectly via the MSM, but much less frequently than our dear friend Schäuble would. The later was projecting his highly annoying angry-father-figure-dissapointed-and-furious-at-his-naughty-little-Greek-children persona since day one of Samaras’ rule. Even Samaras tried to copy that and be an “angry and aggressive father figure” himself, and thus impose his mighty will on the “Grsheeple” (or is it “Grvictims”? “Grpeasants” perhaps?). But he failed miserably, for he came out as looking ridiculous, acting badly and sounding very-very-very stupid.
So these paternal media temper tantrum interventions, which Schäuble fetishizes so much and which are his superweapon of foreign affairs, are not a new thing in Greece, by a long shot. Troika wasn’t just the travelling circus you see; they were and are to some extent, an occupation force (That is why Tsipras was so eager to send them away, from day one). The iconic fair, tall, costumed European bureaucrats, who walk among the mortals through Athens’ streets, after a day’s hard work, to have their lunch break at expensive posh cafes and restaurants, looking absolutely fabulous, is a familiar sight for the Athenians for quite a few years now. They had actually become subtler and quieter for a while, but now they are back, flashing their glorious expensive power suits and looking top notch. And they continue to produce excrements as “solutions” to the Greek issue, which they then impose on the Government, just as they did before – now as part of a deal in the Negotiations Media Drama Reality Show. Now that Varoufakis is sidestepped, they do it in collaboration with “their people” who took over the Ministry of Finance. Take for example this nonsense new bill about the obligatory use of debit and credit cards on every single transaction over 70 euros – or is it over just a euro, if you believe the hype? – as a measure to “combat tax avoidance”. In a collapsed economy. Suffering from a deflationary crash. This is exactly the type of stupid sh!t policy they are preparing and imposing, to justify their salary and please their masters, who don’t care about fixing things, only looting. So intervention is not a new thing here. Let’s not forget the technocrat-banker PM Papadimos, then the VP of the Trilateral Committee, who took office without elections in 2011-12 and made things so much worst… A Reichskanzler does what he can… A Reichskanzler does what he can.
When one relies on “Kathimerini” for their information, they need to buy a truckload of sea salt and start eating while they read the articles. Think of it more of a propaganda platform, than the prestigious independent newspaper it used to be, a long time ago. Its sister TV station, “Skai”, has been the major supporting agent for austerity policies (aka locally as “Memorandum I & II”), since day one and the poster child for austerity policy propaganda support platforms around the world. Seriously, Friedman and the Boys would be proud of them! The polls and the data they both publish or support are false at the very least and are always used to promote their neolib agenda.
Having said that, I believe that this new “Euro or Death” slogan – created by paraphrasing the 1821 revolutionary slogan “Freedom or Death”, this time used to describe the Greek voters eternal dedication to the Eurozone – is more of a highly successful propaganda meme, than reality. Furthermore, let’s not forget that Skai and Kathimerini where the champions of the notion that life outside the Euro is virtually impossible and that there is no alternative to austerity. Due to this high level of propaganda, the Greek voters have been confused for 5 years now on what to do, which allowed for one of the most successful pirate raids ever to take place and various kids of rich folks to steal their public and private wealth. This “Euro or Death” slogan has also been the devilish secret weapon of the evil Dr. Wolf since Syriza was voted into power. He has been sadistically repeating that ‘Greeks don’t want to exit the EZ’ for the last 100 days now and has been using this to mock Tsipras on any given occasion and point out that he can’t win. However, I wouldn’t count on the percentage to be written in stone, or even being accurate. Two weeks ago they said “80%” to be pro-euro, now it’s down to “66.5%” and a more realistic 55% if austerity is imposed, which it will. However, given the dire circumstances, 55% is very close to a 49% or even 36%, to defaulting on debts and the introduction of a new drachma.
As the economic siege of Greece continues, things gradually get worst. Money becomes scarce. Slowly, but steadily the pressure in the boiler goes up. Take a few days ago. In a single day the private TV stations stopped transmitting for a couple of hours, ATMs stopped giving money for a day (both due to ‘technical problems’) and Varoufakis got bullied. Oh my, BDU was busy! But despite the best laid plans of bureaucrats and mice, the chaos that this stupid sh*t creates cannot be tamed, even by a divine god-like supreme figure like Wolfy Schäuble. You see, the all-powerful meme of European Solidarity and Integration is being phased out very fast from the collective Greek soul. For them the EU is not about prosperity anymore, it’s about survival. Sure, the majority of Greeks still don’t want to get out of the EZ, not out of love, but because they fear the alternative. But do you think they will stay idle when the German and European banks come to confiscate their pride and reason for living, their houses and order them to die out of hunger? The very concept of ordering them to commit suicide is fundamentally wrong, but it does reflect how a bureaucrat would give a ‘solution’ to a problem. The resolt of these actions is that even the most of the Greek sheeple can feel where this thing goes. All this doesn’t create pressure, it creates chaos. Wrong result.
Now, more and more know that the EZ and the EU are not going to survive for long. That is why the Germans have started looting the South, as they had been doing for a thousand years in the past. Every year, the Blond King would cross the Alps on his white horse with his massive army to loot and plunder the southern lands. This time around, the plan is the same, but the players and means are different. Take for example a delusional, bitter, narcissistic old guy would give the order to his minions to sms a Reuters so-called journalist and signal the commencement of the Glorious Operation Smear Baldy With Tons Of Crap (against the FinMin Gianis Varoufakis in Riga). I am sure in German, the name sounds better and the whole concept reflects the way kindergarten politics is being done, during the Age of Merkel. But compare the majesty and might of the former with the pettiness and weakness of all the later. Do you see? This Europe has no chance. The center cannot hold, for, among others, there is no center.
The confusing situation in Greece is actually the fog of an economic war in progress and the fact that the Greek and European media are still controlled by an Germanic EU imposed power and propaganda framework. Everybody follows a daily scenario written on a non-paper by some half-drunk obscure bureaucrat, on the 15th floor of some pharaonic building in Brussels, barking orders all the way down the line, until a local montley crue of two-bit journalists publish them and preach them like they were the very Word of God over the MSM and the social media. In the meantime, reality knocks everyone on the head, things keep crushing around us, but hey, who cares? We’ve got Twitter! Politics in just 140 words! That is just as revolutionary as those cute “YOLO” arm tattoos and 15 megapixel selfie phones to admire ourselves online! Right?
While Dr. Schäuble and his voters try to establish their God-given moral and ‘real’ German Superiority over the puny ‘lazy Greeks who live beyond their means’, the Islamic State has established a foothold in Northeastern Libya. This means the Islamists are now 200 n.m. away from the southern shores of Crete. Ok, maybe for Schäuble and his ilk, Crete and Greece “is not Europe, so they can have it”, but they seem to forget that they are certainly Europe’s Grand Sea Wall against the Islamist threat. (After a collapse, next stop, Vienna, anybody?) So does our dear Doktor Schäuble really wants to cause a Greccident, reduce the country and its army to ruins, have everybody off with their heads and send film crews to Athens to record the misery he throws to anyone who defies him? Does our friend, the good Doktor know that if he goes that way, his people will be fighting the Caliph and the Wahabis in Munich, in a few years? (If he doesn’t, it is indeed time for Chancellor Merkel to step in and save her country from the whims and folly of a bitter old man who knowingly drives Europe to ruins.)
As far as war stories go, my dad also lived during the Occupation. He has seen first-hand the things that the generation of Schäuble’s father and grandfather did to the people of this land. Torture, dead bodies on the streets, shootings, killings was everyday life. In the end, my family was forced to abandon their home and escape to the Free Town of Galaxidi to save themselves from the Germans who were looking for them. When the German Army left, they’ve returned to find their home ruined and my grandfather’s extensive library nearly destroyed and burned. You see, it was not that long time ago. My dad still remembers it to this day.
Very recently, our good friends in the State Department released nearly 400,000 pages of Wehrmacht war diaries and all sorts of official documents which prove criminal acts of war committed by the German Occupation Forces, during their stay in Greece. This material was salvaged by the Allies after the war. It proves that orders were given to have people tortured and killed, that ancient artifacts were destroyed or looted, that gold and precious metals were excavated, and that money was stolen from people on a regular basis. These are acts that were not covered by the previous arrangements for one reason only: Crimes against Humanity are not subjected to a statute of limitations or to prescription. This new evidence, never seen before in public, sheds new light to the hardship, torture and destruction caused by the German Occupation Forces to the people of Greece. This is the actual basis of Tsipras’ claims for war reparations. The rest is plain noise.
Nowadays, Germany suddenly seems to have stopped being ashamed of its dirty past – which isn’t really limited to the Holocaust only – and seeks to form a new Empire (the 4th Reich) in the middle of Europe, yet again – we all know what this means, right? Our good friend, the Doktor, is in fact one of the key leaders of the German revisionist movement, that after the Re-unification of the country aims to return Germany to its former glory, guilty-free, imperial and Über Alles. He has published relevant writings and called for this in public, on many occasions. Of course, he would deny this as ‘poppycock’, before emphasizing that ‘the lazy Greeks live beyond their means, steal from the good Germans and all deserve to die a horrible death’, for the 1,000th time (the racist stereotypes are back in the public German political speech. Thanks to our good Doktor, ‘Greek’ rapidly becomes the new ‘Jew’. German cabbies like that a lot!)
But there is only one thing: Despite him and his selective memory, people do remember. And Memory is a powerful weapon in the fight against all sorts of tyrants, who dream of imposing their hegemony on others.
Let us not forget: According to Draghi its QE minus Greek, minus Cypriot banks. Not everybody gets the 60 bn. Those damned Orthodox untermenschen and their accursed banks don’t get a dime, until they completely submit to our wishes and whims and accept they are neo-colonies of the glorious Reich for the next 1000 years and go with the program!
Oh, yes! And according to Our Illustrious Leader Junker, the EU (more like Germany, the ECB and the rest of the bankers) will soon ‘have an army to counter Russia’ (and most probably, to enforce the glorious Austerity down everybody’s throats on the inside). Yeah, that is exactly the EU they were telling us about back in ’92!
And so it was how the Glorious Nation of Oceania was formed.
“War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.”In the Ukraine, the Presidency attempts to boss and blackmail the Central Bank around in what seems to be mainly a financial issue. In the EU, the Central Bank attempts to boss and blackmail Greece around in what seems to be mainly a political issue.
Both Porky Wonka and Draghi are seriously oversteping their authority. Ok, Porky has still half an army and the US and NATO backing him. I hope Draghi has a lots of boots on the ground to enforce his decision when the time comes this March and Europe crumbles for the price of 1bn euros. For ECB is never supposed to be above the member states or the Commision and dictate policy on the EU (i.e. this “Greece must first fullfil its austerity obligations and continue with the program before getting its money to finance its needs – ECB didn’t sign anything” nonsense). Seriously, these micropolitics between bureaucrats, bankers, technocrats and politicians will be the end of the EU project! Or is it just the fact that central banks are trying to rule the world?Spot on analysis! Unlike the avalanche of reports about the glorious victory of the industrious Reich over the lazy Greeks, you drive the narrative to its real proportions, as always!
Germany’s Full Media Dominance is the real problem here. After years of having Greek and European “journalists” on the payroll and sending them on trips to “Institutes of Journalism” in the Fatherland to teach them the “sound principles of good journalism” or having German banks lending Greek TV stations to save them from oblivion, Germany has bought full compliance to its wishes and whims inside Greece and Europe. Same goes for many politicians. Hell, the previous Samaras Government was actually relaying the German dictates without even changing a single comma! The last bills they were producing, regarding more austerity, were clearly translated from German and needed a second bill to “adjust them to the Greek reality!”
The truth is that Syriza knows that it needs to control both the Media and the oligarchs, if they want to continue governing. If you were watching a number of Greek TV stations reporting on the negotiations, you would think you were watching a German right-wing channel! The only thing they didn’t say was “we Greeks are so lazy and dishonest, we don’t deserve better!” (which they actually did in the past), but they were pretty close to that. All the pro-austerity TV personalities of times past and present were used heavily to try to convince Greeks that Syriza failed utterly, that austerity is the only way, that we should ask Germany for forgiveness and that Varoufakis is “insulting” our poor Partners and especially the good Doctor, a father figure “who loves us and doesn’t want to hurt us”. Samaras even signed a condemnation of the negotiations, along with his EPP buddies, who stated that Greece should shut up and do as it was told. Hardly a winning attitude to negotiate your country’s future, is it?
Let us also not forget that the timing for the elections and the negotiations were quasi-accidently set up by Samaras himself. He had failed to have his candidate elected for President in December (i.e. he had to go to elections he knew he would lose) and then requested an extension on the austerity program for 2 months only and not 6 (hint: the extra 4 Tsipras got). As a result, Syriza was set up to have to negotiate 10 days after they won the elections. Samaras even stated over and over, with his disgusting smug psycho look, that he will return to power within 60 days and that Syriza is just a small interval to his rightful governance! I kid you not…
This time extension is crucial for Syriza to try and establish their power and try to control the deep state, the oligarchs and the Media. Without that they will not survive and there can be no real negotiations with the EU, for the 5th Column is active and strong in this country. Now that Syriza has won some room to breathe, we will see heavy fighting to control the Media frequencies and suppress their oligarch owners (hint: the “real” tax evaders) in the next couple of weeks. Even as we speak, ERT (the public TV station illigally shut down by force, by the direct order of the former PM Samaras) is preparing to resume transmissions once again. The next steps will be the bankrupt private TV stations, saved only by their loans from German banks.
@ Formerly T-Bear: Thanks for you remarks. They are spot on and I have a feeling from some leaks in the Greek press that SYRIZA has a simillar back-up plan in the making for some time now, should things go bad. Much of what will happen depends on Merkel now and the level of her bloodlust to make an example out of Greece, to keep money flowing into Germany from the rest of the South. The Portuguese and Spanish FM’s seem to be happy with the current situation and were the very first to attack Varoufakis viciously, in yesterday’s Eurogroup, like the nice little attack doggies they are! Woof!
We Greeks are cornered, there is no deny. We do, however, seem to have two powerful allies, Obama and Putin. Each with their own opposing agenda, but set on containing Merkel and her ambitions. We don’t depend on them to survive.
@ shargash: The chances of a millitary coup at this point are slim. Greece is not, at the moment, on the US Empire’s sights; the contrary is true (they use it to contain Germany’s ambitions. Russia does this, also). It is however targeted by an ambitious Germany, eager to establish a Fourth Reich in the EU, asap, to stay ahead in the game of thrones. However, this revisionistic Germany does not have actual “boots on the ground”, no Wertmacht, no Luftwaffe, no armored SS bigades to invade from the North, as it did before. It only wields “financial” and “political” weapons, within a very weak EU. While these are fine to ruin countries or the economy of the world, they cannot produce a successful coup against a government with a 75% approval rating. Let us not forget that it took $5 bn and 10 years of preparations for CIA to succeed in the Ukraine. I’d like to see Germany spending precious euros away from its banks for geopolitik purposes! Then you will have a coup, by raving Frankfurt bankers!
Finally, let us not forget that too many Greek Armed Forces officers are sided with the Right-wind, old-style, pro country-religion-family, patriot Minister of Defense, Kamenos, SYRIZA’s partner in the government, who represents all the values that neolib Samaras striped away from the conservative New Democracy. So don’t expect any military coup as-of-yet.
PS However, there were strange reports in the local press that a ‘financial coup’ was in the making, by our beloved EU partners, Germany, set to blow in the first 10 days of SYRIZA’s government. It was supposedly averted when Obama intervened strongly and shooed Frau Angela away. The ‘coup’ involved widespread panic, bank runs, Bank of Greece collaboration, financial attacks, Cyprus-style confiscation of deposits, looting and violence (2008-style, that had left Athens in ruins and forced PM Karamanlis to resign), “terrorist attacks” and widespread euro-media coverage of the misery caused on the “lazy” Greeks, who “lived beyond their means” and defied the mighty will of the Führerin.
But as Plato taught us, Reality is the stick that hits you on the head, when you question it. The eurocrats keep forgeting that.
It is likely that “Extend and Pretend” will continue for 6 months, with the EU and Merkel agreeing to disagree with Tsipras.
People must understand that Greece was just about to reach a deflationary crash, right before Christmas. There is nearly no money going around, anymore. Nowadays, most people have just a few cents in their pockets. What good is having the Euro as your currency, if you can’t have money to buy the most basic of things? I am betting, if the worst comes to the worst, SYRIZA’s Plan C involves an internal currency or coupons or internal bonds, just to help people survive the storm. Plan C involves going to the US, Russia and China for help, who will gladly give the money just to stick old Angela in the behind and contain the Reich from growing.
In fact, the problem in Greece is that a large proportion of the population cannot afford to pay their bills, rent, taxes, doctor or their children’s activities, anymore. That is the making of Austerity-as-religion-gone-mad-claiming-your-firstborns-for-Moloch, type of thing. People see that now that propaganda subsides and loses touch with reality. Can you blame them?
The only way to describe all this disaster as a glorious “success story” anymore (like lap-doggy Samaras insists on doing and annoying everyone) and ask for it to continue forever just-because-Frau-Angela-says-so, is only if you are a fool, a spy, a banker or demented.
A final note: you can keep a population in-line by means of fear and propaganda – just like it was done until recently – but you cannot force them to commit ritual suicide, claiming you’re their “friend” who is in fact saving their lives! Even in Doublespeak, Death is not Life! Destruction is not Constructive, regardless how politicians may wish so. The needs of the few (aka society), do not outweigh the needs of the many (the rich). So no matter how many scary threats will Scheible make, what people experience is much worst. When I honestly keep telling you that there is no money in my pocket, anymore, and you keep answering “keep giving me your money, I want moooore” – German-style – who do you think wins: you or reality?
@ rapier: There is no such thing as a minority government in Greece. The government Left-Right coalition received 162 votes (out of 300) just yesterday (11th February), meaning it has a very strong mandate to proceed to Eurogroup. They also have a 75% + approval rate, 41% from people who voted for New Democracy (according to a poll conducted by austerity-friendly SKAI TV). I don’t see a minority; I see a Putin-like approval of people asking from SYRIZA to do something to save them from the ruins of austerity.
