Posted on 05/05/2010 2:49:58 PM PDT by Kartographer
The President of Greece warned last night that his country stood on the brink of the abyss after three people were killed when an anti-government mob set fire to the Athens bank where they worked.
“I have difficulty in finding the words to express my distress and outrage,” President Papoulias said. “The big challenge we face is to maintain social cohesion and peace. Our country came to the brink of the abyss. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we don’t step over the edge.”
Violence flared as tens of thousands of striking workers and civil servants took to the streets of the capital and the northern city of Salonika to protest against the Government’s austerity measures.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
"Social cohesion" seems to be Euro-speak for the standard policy of paying off looters so they won't riot."
It will be interesting how this plays out because this very well could be the California template.
How sad....the Cradle of Democracy.
The problem is that the government has nothing to pay them off with.
Lets see a welfare state can’t support it’s citizens, a foreign population that can easily become scapegoated, massive unemployment. These are the perfect conditions for Fascist leaders to rise.
Lets imagine this...a city the size of LA announces it can’t pay pension checks for firemen and cops. A president has to start calling in senators to arrange some kind of bailout...which most states will refuse because there’s no legal way to decrease the pension program of LA or any city in the state. Within seven days...things would start falling apart and city council folks would just pack up and leave the state for a week or two. That would invite chaos on the streets and things would go downhill from that point on.
Watch Greece over the next month....none of this is going to settle easily. But there is one clear point...Greek protesters have a history...they can’t sustain protests. Eventually...after eight to twelve weeks...it will start to ease up.
I don’t think an American city would survive 12 weeks of that.
You mean it wasn't a bunch of balding, middle-aged, white, right-wingers who were upset over the healthcare bill?
Crap, I lost another 25 cents.
Well, it is sad, but democracy is just 2 wolves a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. That’s how they got into this mess. People voted themselves the keys to the treasury and spent it all.
The Sheep are now awake and must punish their oppressors at the polls so we do not have to punish them physically in the not too distant future.
Most of the voting public wanted their place at the trough, or it never would have gotten this bad. Even conservative politicians bring home the bacon, and they would have a difficult time getting elected if they didn’t.
“Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” ~ Frederic Bastiat
Thats what they get for working for the government, and the same thing could happen here if the socialists have their way.
and city council folks would just pack up and leave the state for a week or two. That would invite chaos on the streets and things would go downhill from that point on.
... and the cesspool of Socialism.
That day of reckoning is only coming if the feds don't bail them out. You are correct it will be interesting regardless.
Greece has been surviving violent protests like these for decades now. Most recent ones I can remember: 12/08 the Alexandros Grigoropoulos riots who by the way was killed because he himself was taking part in another riot on that night he was shot...the irony of it all; 12/09 they decide to remember the 12/08 Grigoropoulos riots and riot again on its anniversary; July 2009 more riots by crazy anarchists and leftist nuts; 3/10 just a few months ago riots over the economy grounded all flights and brought public transport to a halt; 9 January 2010 riots by some anarchist clowns again; and I've lost count how many times students riot and take over schools in some protest and "grievances" they come up with... if they worked and paid taxes as much as they riot the country wouldn't be in the mess it is today. ;-) But then again what would you except from the EU socialist governments.
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