Posted on 02/13/2012 5:56:19 AM PST by Zakeet
Greece: once the origin of Western civilization. Now, a burned-down debt penal colony owned by Goldman Sachs...
There is a silver lining to Athens' ever uglier transition to a third world country: the massive GDP boost that awaits it as it sets off to fix broken windows and burned down buildings. In fact, we eagerly await Krugman's OpEd praising some of the more recent developments out of Greece in the past 48 hours. Granted, the country will need to get even more bailout funding from the Troika for said GDP boost to occur, but who cares about details anymore.
From Athens News:
Police said 150 shops were looted in the capital and 48 buildings set ablaze. Some 100 people – including 68 police – were wounded and 130 detained, a police official said on Monday. There was also violence in cities across the country, including Thessaloniki and the islands of Corfu and Crete.Athenians were shocked at the burnt buildings that included the neoclassical home to the Attikon cinema dating from 1870. "We are all very angry with these measures but this is not the way out," said Dimitris Hatzichristos, 30, a public sector worker surveying the debris.
Altogether 199 of the 300 lawmakers backed the controversial bill. The 43 who rebelled were immediately expelled by their parties, Pasok and New Democracy.
"Night of terror inside and outside the parliament," conservative daily Eleftheros Typos wrote on its front page.
Asian shares and the euro gained modestly on Monday and MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan edged up as much as 0.3 percent.
Some of the more vivid images from this morning's cleanup crew:
Athenians swept rocks and broken glass from the streets of their city on Monday after a night of violence that gave MPs a taste of the challenge they face in implementing a deeply unpopular austerity bill demanded by the troika.Firefighters doused the smouldering remains of several buildings, set ablaze by hooded youths during protests against the package of pay, pension and job cuts adopted by parliament just after midnight, on Monday morning, after 10 hours of debate.
And while we already knew that democracy is only that on paper, and until someone disagrees, following the expuslion of 43 deputies from their respective parties for disagreeing with the ongoing sacking of Greece by Europes' banks, here are potential next steps.
"Enough is enough!" said 89-year-old Manolis Glezos, one of country’s most famous leftists. "They have no idea what an uprising by the Greek people means. And the Greek people, regardless of ideology, have risen." Glezos is a national hero for sneaking up the Acropolis at night in 1941 and tearing down a Nazi flag from under the noses of the German occupiers, raising the morale of Athens residents.
Odd: the Greeks managed to stand up to the Nazis, yet when it comes to standing up to Europe's banker cartel, the best the "risen" Greek people can come up with is looting and burning down their own country? Oh well, in the scramble for the last money good asset yet to be pillaged, all is fair in love and rehypothecation.
Athens last night after the police ran out of tear gas ... in case you missed it because the Mainstream Media nitwits focused exclusively on the far more important (to them) Whitney whinny ... coming soon to a country and cities near you when we face even more severe austerity measures ... with absolutely nobody on the planet able to bail our butts out.
The year of the Paris Commune. How appropriate.
Then look at a picture of Detriot. That also is the end result of the Welfare State. Everyone sits around expecting someone else to take care of things and an entire city -- an entire metropolitan area -- reverts to a state of nature. The productive people leave and the buildings fall into disrepair. Entire sections of a city that once had one million people are grown over and revert to nature.
And yet people are so addicted to the heroin of government spending that they can't get off this path.
And let’s destroy our tourist industry like Egypt,Tunisia and the Maldives.
Ahhh Athens, the cradle of Democracy...... Learning the forgotten lesson of thousands of years ago.
Democracy fails when the riff raff vote to give themselves that which is not theirs.
It’s deja vu all over again.
I bet our MSM refuses to call this a riot.
Bingo! You nailed it perfectly.
Entitlement Zombies
Greece is the vanguard. What happens there spreads across the rest of the West.
Brace yourselves! It's going to be a bumpy night--and a long, dark night too!
"There is a silver lining to Athens' ever uglier transition to a third world country"
Yes--if seeing the future can be considered a "silver lining".
Cassandra didn’t think so. But what did she know? She was a Trojan.
How's that working out for ya, Greece?
Detroit's population was at the 2 million mark in the late 50's, early 60's. It currently stands at approximately 750K. A tribute to the welfare state, racial politics and political correctness.
Last Fall I went on a cruise and visited the Pyramids and the Parthenon.
I figured it might be time to see them quickly and get the hell out of there before things got worse. It’s hard not to be pessimistic about what lies ahead for that whole area.
Luckily, the timing worked out for me. Things were pretty quiet when I was there, except for a garbage strike in Athens.
Well for starters. First Greece. Then North Korea. Then Zimbabwe.
Well for starters. First Greece. Then North Korea. Then Zimbabwe.
Well for starters. First Greece. Then North Korea. Then Zimbabwe.
Well for starters. First Greece. Then North Korea. Then Zimbabwe.
Multiply that entitlement mentality by 1000 fold here and you’ll see how bad it can/will get.
You’ve got the entitlement mentality multiplied by generations of “they owe you because of slavery/racism”.
This is so telling. And here if this keeps up, these freeloaders that burn us down are the slaves we let come here for labor but don’t respect them as humans by making them keep to responsibilities here. We have glorified And coddled the non American underclass and it will kill us in the end.
And this what most major American Cities are going to look when the time finally comes that we have no other choice but to implement austerity budgets here (and it’s not a matter of if it will happen, but a matter of when). Imagine, food stamps, welfare, housing allowances, unemployment all cut by 80% and the salaries of federal, state and local government employees cut by 50%.
Coming soon to an Obama sponsored ghetto near you...
The celebrations of music, masquerade, dance and colors mark a unique three-week-long period in Greece that dates back to antiquity and the worship of the god Bacchus, or Dionysus, god of wine and celebration in the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Today, there are many different carnival parades going on all over Greece. Hundreds of groups take part in those parades, and anyone who wishes to participate can just join a group. 
Greek Carnival Celebrations Across Greece By Stella Tsolakidou on February 13, 2012 in News
And they danced in the streets to their gods.
No statistics on number of cars burned yet?
Wasn’t that THE graphic of the “disaffected youths” a few years ago?
“Detroit’s population was at the 2 million mark in the late 50’s, early 60’s. It currently stands at approximately 750K. A tribute to the welfare state, racial politics and political correctness.”
“Robocop” movies called it first.
Ummm....Broken Window Fallacy, anyone? If the money wasn't there before the riots, it certainly isn't there now. Any money spent on repair/reconstruction must be diverted from other economic activities (unless Germany inexplicably decides to pour more money in from the outside).
I'm going to guess that a large percentage of rioters are young guys still living with their government-employee parents, and dependent upon their salaries and pensions continuing.
“In fact, we eagerly await Krugman’s OpEd praising some of the more recent developments out of Greece in the past 48 hours.”
LOL, LOL, LOL!
Brilliant!
I thought it was ironic that they'd favorably compare someone who stood up to the Nazis (National Socialists), to a bunch of hoodlums rioting because they want more free stuff from the Socialists currently in power.
Whatta difference 2 or 3 generations makes.
Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson" is where I first heard of the broken window fallacy.
Obama, Peloser and Reid hate it when you are right.
One helluva greece fire
Should make all blacks proud./s
They Got Mouth.
The U.S.? Democracy Ineptocracy
A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
***When the gravy train stops because there is no more “other people’s money,” the dependent class riots.****
The parasite class attempts to kill the host because there is no more blood to suck.
:-)
I didn't know who first posited the BWF, but it certainly makes sense to me.
Well I’m off to the store for some more ammo & canned goods . might get an extra ABC fire extinguisher. As you might guess I tend to think your view on the situation in Greece is coming here.
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Welfare state?
Most of these people rioting are former or current government employees, who are being cut off.
Did ya know 1 in 3 Greeks are/were employed by the government.
The U.S. is going the same route.
The rest--like Oedipus and Jocasta--blinded by hubris and denial--doom themselves to unspeakable tragedy.
Hubris and denial are the most dangerous things in the world. Even today--after all these centuries of warnings--the people of the West have not learned.
Most of these people rioting are former or current government employees, who are being cut off.
Did ya know 1 in 3 Greeks are/were employed by the government?
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