Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde (R) attend a Eurogroup meeting at the European Union council headquarters.
Posted on 02/12/2012 12:53:20 PM PST by NormsRevenge
ATHENS (Reuters) - Historic cinemas, cafes and shops went up in flames in central Athens on Sunday as black-masked protesters fought Greek police outside parliament, while inside lawmakers looked set to defy the public rage by endorsing a new EU/IMF austerity deal.
As parliament prepared to vote on a new 130 billion euro bailout to save Greece from a messy bankruptcy, a Reuters photographer saw the buildings engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky.
The air over Syntagma Square outside parliament was thick with tear gas as riot police fought running battles with youths who smashed marble balustrades and hurled stones and petrol bombs.
Government officials warned that Greeks faced "unimaginably harsher" sacrifices if parliament rejected the package, which demands deep pay, pension and job cuts, when it votes later in the evening.
But on the streets many businesses were ablaze, including the neo-classical home to the Attikon cinema dating from 1870 and a building housing the Asty, an underground cinema used by the Gestapo during World War Two as a torture chamber.
As fighting raged for hours, protesters threw homemade bombs made from gas canisters as riot police advanced across the square on the crowds, firing tear gas and stun grenades. Loud booms from the protests could be heard inside parliament.
"Tear gas has reached the parliament chamber," said leftist lawmaker Panagiotis Lafazanis.
After days of dire warnings and threats of rebellion, parliament began debating a bill setting out 3.3 billion euros ($4.4 billion) in wage, pension and job cuts this year alone, to secure funds Greece needs to avoid bankruptcy next month.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I'm Sad and glad here.. Sad for the people that work hard there and glad I got to see a little GReece before it gets 'ruined' again.
Coming soon to a nation near you. :)
perhaps not. perhaps they are relearning the forgotten lesson
the people lack the discipline to govern themselves
they vote to take that which is not theirs and the result is nasty
we are about tho learn that same lesson. or rather we are relearning that lesson
Give me free pie or I burn down the bakery!
” saw the buildings engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky.
The air over Syntagma Square outside parliament was thick with tear gas as riot police fought running battles with youths who smashed marble balustrades and hurled stones and petrol bombs. “
This sounds like a pretty major escalation in the intensity of Greek ‘demonstrations’..
Not looking good....
The ‘67 riots in Detroit (and other ‘rat cities) certainly got those places on the right trajectory....
Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde (R) attend a Eurogroup meeting at the European Union council headquarters.
The Greek problems are so sad. However, their present mess is our future mess.
Good Point! I hadn't really thought about it, but there are definitely reasons why there are "ruins" strewn about the world.
Greece has always been a sideshow. Things will get really interesting when similar austerity measures are introduced in Italy, Spain and France. Doubt the Germans will be as tough with this group as they are with Greece. The rioting has really frightened the bureaucrats in Brussels and the IMF. However if the deficit spending continues, the EU will likely implode. Just hope our esteemed President doesn’t commit the American taxpayer too deeply in this mess. Think the Keynsians are learning anything?
bump
OR, salt the earth of the grain fields.
OR, salt the earth of the grain fields.
What is considered "deep?"
When I read this I have two thoughts:
1. When this reallly goes you will see major banks and hedge funds swarming over the body looking for trillions in payouts for credit default swaps. That is not good.
2. There is more media time spent on that drug addled d-bag that died in Beverly Hills than this. The impact of a defaulting Greece is the first dominoe to fall. Italy will make these riots look like your average Saturday night football hooligan riot.
The Greek chaos is coming here eventually because we are just as broke as they are. We are now in a civil war over debt slavery to the welfare state and you don’t need to have a crystal ball to see a collapse coming.
I wrote a full book on what a modern civil war will look like, it isn’t like CWI. A lot of things change because of the Internet. Also, the regime can’t count on the army, so it is fighting with proxy armies of union brownshirts, OWS anarchsts and illegals. But it is still a civil war. No one will want it or try to start it on the right, it is just baked into the cake because the financial mountains are so huge.
“Surviving Civil War II: Preparing For Political, Social & Economic Collapse” http://www.futurnamics.com/civilwar.php
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