Independent Hellenes, Germany Italy 1-2

It is near impossible to sail a ship with three captains. Secret agendas and backroom deals rule the day and undermine a clear course or even a common objective. Due to eye surgery our Prime Minister could not travel to the European Summit however he did send a letter to the other leaders in the hands of our President. It is a funny letter indeed as it is full of assurances of Greece's intent to pay and hand over and sell out and a tiny paragraph near the end about how we need to tackle unemloyment and exit this recession. Another man attempts suicide for economic reasons today, leaving work for a five minute break and calmly jumping off the Acropolis. One of our neighbours also took a leap for the same kind of reasons. Both in their forties, both miraculously lived. So while our PM whimpers for help, or something like that it is not clear, people are in desperate times here with no room left to maneuver. A million and a half unemployed in a country of eleven million people is a huge number. It is truly a depression we are living in while these politicians gloat and lie and try to fool the people. The only good news here is that we finally have an effective opposition to all this corruption. The other good news is that Italy passes with a 1-2 victory to the Euroleague finals leaving Germany behind. Sure Merkel came to see Greece versus Germany as she assumed it would be a sure win what with Karagoonis, our team captain, excluded from the game. You should see how he was given that yellow card, anyways, I don't want to sound bitter or anything... congragulations Italy and I realy like that back alley soccer style they have... good luck in the finals. 

p.s. you should have seen the Italian players faces during the game. Greece and Spain are both on the verge of bankruptcy after winning the Euroleague cup in 2004 and 2008 respectively. For a moment there I thought the Italians where just going to let the Germans win and possibly go bankrupt too or at least avoid a possible Italian bankruptcy by winning... 

3 party government...

Yes just to keep things spicy we have finaly reached an agreement here in Greece. Samaras as Prime Minister along with Eleftherios Venizelos and Koovelis throwing in their support. So it is New Democracy along with Pasok and the Democratic Left. The pressure was on SYRIZA to also participate with its leader Tsipras who had given birth to the idea of the possibility of renegotiation of the memorandum and loan package. We spent an entire election campaign with New Democracy, Pasok, the Democratic Left, the Communist Party of Greece, the media and of course the rest of the world trying to convince us, the voters, note to vote for SYRIZA. Sure is funny watching all the rich and powerful people squirming in their pants when somebody comes along to doubt their version of the world. I still can't accept that I was born merely to work and pay the rich for alowing me the pleasure of breathing. In other news Samaras managed to score a goal on Germany but Greece still didn't make it to the next round losing 4-2 to the Germans. Merkel seemed to enjoy it. The other Samaras, our PM, was rushed to hospital for eye surgery as the stress of two election campaigns in two months took its toll. The minister of economy also fell sick and needed to be replaced. So John Stournaras takes the place of Bill Rapanos. I am not an expert but why do we need a minister of economics when we already have a minister of development and a minister of the interior and 30 or more other ministries. Well not a very inspired episode today but then that is to be expected. It is summer, it is getting close to 40 degrees celsius and it is time for the beach. Cheers!

Greek election results part 2

Along with some help from friends abroad in the form of direct threats the Samaras summersault has been the mainstay of this repeat election. "I pay I tell you who to vote" Focus German edition last week. Samaras is known as mr. summersault due to his ability to reverse his stance on anything at any moment, see previous post:
 http://ellinomangia.blogspot.gr/2012/04/blog-of-mostly-political-and-cultural.html

So with an entire planet threatening and rattling at us Greeks not to vote for SYRIZA or any other party that refuses to ratify past loan agreements Samaras and his New Tromocracy party managed to win with an astonishing 29.7 percent of the vote. That is certainly way ahead of second place SYRIZA with a mere 26.9 percent of the vote. That 2.5 percentage point difference translates into a 58 seat spread in parliament. Take a look at official results so far. The blue is New Democracy, the pink is SYRIZA and the green is PASOK. The rest are the rest.

So mr. Samaras will have his chance today to form a government by trying to please all the smaller parties. Not much has changed from the elections of May the 6th so it is a possibility that there will be no new government at the end of the day. Greeks are not use to sharing power or responsibility for that matter. As a matter of fact the stereotype of the Greek macho guy with the oversized ego is described here as Ellinaras. As a matter of fact the stereotype is quite fitting for a little over 7 percent of the population that voted for the Golden Dawn party. Nothing like supporting the neo-Nazi party. Kind of like lining up for a handout eh!

Election day Greece qualification

What a week it has been leading up to the elections. I have never lived anything like it. Even in Canada in the eighties with all the debt talk there was never such an organized attempt to spread fear in the populace. We have been treated to all kinds of threats from political leaders and bankers of Europe. Today on the news there was a freakish longhaired analyst from England telling us how Europe is ready to kick us out of the eurozone. A documentary that played two days ago was full of such information. All specualtive of course. "If Greece exits the eurozone... a return to the drachma will mean a devaluation..." and so on and so on. Expert after expert warning us who to vote. Some foreign magazines have come right out and named which party we must vote for in order to stay in the eurozone. Seems we don't realy need elections anymore, not according to bankers anyways. They tell us what to do and then we do it, or starve. One of our comedians pointed out how narrow the beds were in Dachau. They have to thin us down first is the point she was making. So while the privately owned tv channels play these fear mongering newscasts and pseudocumentaries public tv is busy with another viewpoint. They have spent the last week playing documentaries and movies as well but they all have to do with Nazi attrocities and the Greek resistance to them. It is a long list of heroic actions and inhuman response from the invader. 

In other news Greece just beat Russia to qualify for the next round in the Euroleague soccer championships being held in Poland and the Ukraine. 1-0 at the 45 minute mark from mr. Karagoonis. Thank you sir. Victory is sweet and I am keeping my fingers crossed for election day tomorrow. Cheers to all.

Spanish pie...

Or Spanish pudding as the proof therein lies. Spain is a brilliant example of healthy and balanced economic growth. A country that carefuly developed both its agricultural and industrial base. A country with balanced budgets and low debt before the crisis, Spain is suddenly scrambling to cover a black hole of debt. It realy makes no sense, unless of course you have read the Alexander the great plan: http://ellinomangia.blogspot.gr/2011/10/alexander-great-plan-unmasked.html
Spain organized the only profitable olympics ever in Barcelona in 1992. Not a corrupt country with a population that doesn't pay its taxes like we Greeks are supposed to be. The most profitable car factories of the Volkswagen group are the SEAT in Spain. So how did the Spanish end up with such a black hole of debt. An article by local economist Baroufakis blames the "idiotic" private bankers. I have a feeling though that it is more likely that banks have been buying each other out and "idiotic" bankers have managed to sweep their "mistakes" under the carpet. Since the crisis began here in Greece our private banks, that had avoided buying high risk products and were thus poised to avoid the crisis, have been slowly acquired by foreign interests and now require public refinancing. In any event here is the plan that was put into affect to "save" the Spaniards. First the Spanish banks will borrow about 300 billion from the European Central Bank at 1% interest. To avoid any possible bankruptcies the government will also borrow from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) at about 4% and give that money to the banks. As in every case so far when refinancing the banks public money is simply donated with no return or control. To avoid the scary event of a Spanish bankruptcy the private banks will then lend money to their government, from the funds they borrowed at 1% form the EFSF, at the incredible rate of 6%.  So first the private banks of Spain dump their losses onto the Government, and the public. Then they get refinanced at low interest while at the same time lending at a 5 percentage point profit to Spain, pushing her closer to bankruptcy while fighting to pay massive loans of 4 and 6 percentage points to cover these private sector losses. The only thing that is required for this rotten deal is aggressive austerity measures on behalf of the Spanish government and like in the examples of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the partial granting of national sovereignty. It is a small price to pay to stay in the Euro eh? NOT! The basic premise for SYRIZA and Tsipras refusing to partake in a government with either ND or PASOK is just that, the two parties have already signed a partial granting of Greek sovereignty...
This is also my premise for calling Merkel and her gangster coworkers Nazis, 'cause what do they want with Greek sovereignty anyways? The mechanism to chip away at nations and national identities has been set up. Who will prevail and under what conditions will be judged in the future elections or in the marketplace depending on our vote.

Liana Kaneli, Rena Dourou, Ilias Kassidiaris, Golden Dawn

Members of Golden Dawn, Kassidiaris and Mihaloliakos, being sworn in.

I woke up this morning just another busy day. Dress the kids, get them to school, burp the baby. We were watching the morning news magazine when the rotten egg that is fascism finaly hatched. All week, and thanks to a law of equal representation of all parties in parliament on the news, we were subjected to the presence of Golden Dawn members on news pannels. Treated as equals they crept into our homes and our tv world, it is all we have left these days, and started to woo us with all their charms and eloquent language. It is the best way to feed the egg, to incubate it, to force it to reveal itself. Many thanks to Liana Kaneli on her brave stance and comments, oblivion, oblivion, oblivion... may the Greek electorate hear her...

ps. watch the reaction of Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the white haired gentleman sitting next to Dourou, member of parliament and of the conservative ND party. Am I wrong or is he looking for the exit?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk3BnSY-6Kk&feature=related


Please also watch a ballsy Irish reporter showing up these Nazi troika types, the real fascists of europe today as it would seem...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxkBR_f_q4Y&feature=g-all-xit

Sonic the hedge fund....

The Indepenent in London reports this morning:

A group of hedge funds is threatening to block a last-ditch attempt to save Greece from defaulting on its huge debt pile, unless they are guaranteed a significant payout.

There will be a final attempt today – when a group representing Greece's private sector bondholders meets senior ministers in Athens – to negotiate a writedown of the value of the country's debt ahead of a crucial bond repayment deadline next month.

Sources familiar with the talks, which collapsed at the end of last week, have said that a number of hedge funds are holding up the restructuring deal to ensure that they make a fat profit, after snapping up Greek bonds at distressed prices.

Sure it is an old story from last December or January but its message still rings true. Markets making money at the expense of overindebted nations. I still have not gone into stuff like PSI (private sector involvement) or CDS (credit default swaps). The fact that markets determine policy has been a direct result of what was once known as trickle down economics. Since then, back in the eighties with Reaganomics, the tax base has shifted from the haves to the have nots. Point of sale taxes, hidden consumer taxes on things like gasoline and other commodities and a whole series of broad based taxes like the recent haratsi tax in Greece, have taken the tax burden off the rich and spread it across the population. Trickle down makes the assumption that the rich will eventualy share their wealth with everyone through their needs for better services and so forth. Like a constipated bekantan, big nosed monkey, all the money is stuck at the top. The top one percent of the population in fact, that holds on to the vast majority of earths wealth and can't seem to waste its money fast enough for it to trickle down to the rest of us. You know on useful things like bigger cars, yachts, sex tourism, or whatever other whim may whip their fancy. I never did understand Reaganomics anyways other than the fact that it disenfranchised most people from their wealth. It truly is time to let go of our former fearsome ways.
Greece has sort of started to do so as SYRIZA slipped into the lead momentarily in the polls on Friday. The constipated establishment let out a big fearsome awesome fart with all sorts of starvation scenarios if Tsipras and SYRIZA win the election. Quite a stale smell erupted from the bowels of the system but after eight long months of threats upon threats we are no longer scared. Instead it is time to break with old fearful patterns and head down life's highway into uncharted and greener territory. The establishment too has shown cracks in its united front against everything logical, sensical, sane or humane. There is a negative reaction to Schuable's nomination to the head of the Eurogroup. Steinmeier says there is just too much power concentrated in Germany. Berlusconi suggested that the south of Europe mint its own Euro without the participation of Germany and many European politicians are practicing their acrobatics. It will be one hoat summer....