Greece may be financially bankrupt, but the troika is politically bankrupt. Those who persecute this nation wield illegitimate, undemocratic powers, powers of the kind now afflicting us all. Consider the International Monetary Fund. The distribution of power here was perfectly stitched up: IMF decisions require an 85% majority, and the US holds 17% of the votes.

The IMF is controlled by the rich, and governs the poor on their behalf. It’s now doing to Greece what it has done to one poor nation after another, from Argentina to Zambia. Its structural adjustment programmes have forced scores of elected governments to dismantle public spending, destroying health, education and all the means by which the wretched of the earth might improve their lives.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/07/greece-financial-elite-democracy-liassez-faire-neoliberalism

The past is still with us...

The present situation between Europe and Greece is a fact of history gone its merry little way, when it started long ago, in BC. 
Greek history goes back to before 9700 BC. But the period that defined its greater relationship as a "unified" state is around the Byzantine Empire... from around 400 AD. The amounts of shifty alliances, deceit and regrouping still shows in the present angst and divisive pains of Europe. 
By comparison the birth of the USA was quite simple. delete the local injuns, speak the same lingo, have the same ideals — with some variants about slavery, same cash. The civil war in America was but a very small wart compared to the political traumas of Europe
Europe is like a tetra-headed monster willing to be the Hydra. Unfortunately each head is not in charge of the beast and for them, trying to have a consensus on anything is like constructing a camel from parts of donkeys. They can do it, but they don't know they can and they start from the wrong end, the arsehole...

Meanwhile the US is trying to kill this beast. The US hates the idea of a unified Europe. Make no mistake about this. The USA uses its financial and military might to this purpose. It divides Europe.

Present attempt to unify this geography entity is not new... in 600 AD, The Roman Empire was divided in two, being too large to manage from one centre. The Byzantine Empire was the western part of it and encompassed various tribal nations. It had many upheavals and in the 1400 became mostly Arabic.

I won't go into all the push and shoves in which wars were led for no other purpose but for ruthless conquerors to be top dog in the region — east and west of Europe, plus the Arabic states and the Russians.
Psychopaths want their cake. It has been ugly and it continues. the weapon of choice in our century is not the dagger nor guns, but cash. Cash is (and has always been) the most insidious weapons of all.

Emperors, rulers, kings, queens always "stamped their own coins" with their face on something like a post office shilling stamp to remind the populace of whom is in charge... Don't you forget it.


Gus Leonisky 
Your local Greek historian


For your stamp collection:

 

Suppose you consider Tsipras an incompetent twerp. Suppose you dearly want to see Syriza out of power. Suppose, even, that you welcome the prospect of pushing those annoying Greeks out of the euro.

Even if all of that is true, this Eurogroup list of demands is madness. The trending hashtag ThisIsACoup is exactly right. This goes beyond harsh into pure vindictiveness, complete destruction of national sovereignty, and no hope of relief. It is, presumably, meant to be an offer Greece can’t accept; but even so, it’s a grotesque betrayal of everything the European project was supposed to stand for.

Can anything pull Europe back from the brink? Word is that Mario Draghi is trying to reintroduce some sanity, that Hollande is finally showing a bit of the pushback against German morality-play economics that he so signally failed to supply in the past. But much of the damage has already been done. Who will ever trust Germany’s good intentions after this?

In a way, the economics have almost become secondary. But still, let’s be clear: what we’ve learned these past couple of weeks is that being a member of the eurozone means that the creditors can destroy your economy if you step out of line. This has no bearing at all on the underlying economics of austerity. It’s as true as ever that imposing harsh austerity without debt relief is a doomed policy no matter how willing the country is to accept suffering. And this in turn means that even a complete Greek capitulation would be a dead end.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/killing-the-european-project/?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0