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To: IbJensen
The government needs to do something because the big companies are taking advantage of us

That right there tells you everything, Forget the milk. The problem is bigger than dairy products or farming. The attitude that companies are "taking advantage" and that government needs to "do something" is why the world is a mess.

2 posted on 11/23/2012 5:31:15 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Global Warming is a religion, and I don't want to be taxed to pay for a faith that is not mine.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Government did do something for decades; hence the pain and suffering by these adult children both in Greece and in the USSA!


3 posted on 11/23/2012 5:36:03 AM PST by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
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To: ClearCase_guy; yefragetuwrabrumuy; Viennacon
I'd keep a close and skeptical eye on Golden Dawn because they're essentially the double-down party. They're people who think that what's wrong with economic fascism is that it's not fascist enough. "Just tear up those bull%^&* banker contracts, get rid the dirty marketplace for clean orders, and we will be great again!"

Okay: I'm oversimplifying somewhat, but I'm doing so to show a tendency that's glossed over right now. As long as a large number of people think that the best response to failed policies is to double down, the spirit behind Golden Dawn will metastasize and spread across Europe.

The first Fascist leader in Europe was not Hitler: it was Mussolini. Until he agreed to be under the thumb of the Nazis, his rule didn't seem all that bad to the chattering classes in his heyday. In fact, none other than the New York Slimes had favourable articles about him circa 1930 - back when the Nazis were in about the same position as Golden Dawn is now.

Maybe Golden Dawn's rule will be like Mussolini's: shelve the democratic process, throw a few hundred political enemies into the hoosegow but treat them fairly decently while confined, no massacres or (initially) wars, hold up the Potemkin village of the trains being run on time. Although we have only case to go on, history shows that the first Fascist government isn't the big worry. It's the second, as ensconced in a much bigger and more powerful country.

And the second slides in courtesy of the legitimacy provided by the first.

I say this because Greece in in huge trouble for reasons not specific to Greece. We're not talking about a domestic breach of the Constitution, a domestic civil war [even if proxyish] or widespread domestic anarchy. The problem that Golden Dawn purports to double-down solve is trans-European. I'm tempted to say trans-First-World.

If one group of blokes get in and don't do that badly, we'll be lulled. And fascists of other nations will be encouraged. "Common problem, common solution" and so on.

Remember: in a very real way, full fascism is a double-down in the teeth of austerity. And there are lots of people whose response to austerity will be to double down.

Also remember: the relative 'civility' of Mussolini's rule eased the path for Hitler. Had Mussolini not taken over, it's highly unlikely that the Nazis would have won. Their apologists couldn't intimate that Hitler's fascism would be a lot like Mussolini's had there been no Mussolini. And Mussolini's Fascism did gain semi-legitimacy in the Western World as the '20s turned into the '30s.

27 posted on 11/23/2012 10:17:30 AM PST by danielmryan
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