#Grexit or Not: Bits and Pieces

Eurobullies are all terrified at being accused of the disintegration of the Eurozone if it happens. They’re pretending they’re all in control and in a strong position but they’re actually running very scared. Strong position my arse. Making a lot of noise and pulling a lot of smug faces about “breach of trust”. My God if only they could see themselves! It’s kind of difficult to comply with austerity and pay back all the money owed when said austerity has crippled the economy. Duh. 

I tell you what we can trust; we can trust centrist right politicos to not give a damn about humanitarian crises, even if their policies and demands and twisted agendas have caused the crises.

Word was that there was no official #Grexit being discussed. Then a document was leaked. There’s a definite Grexit option, only they’re calling it a ‘time-out’ The document has more clauses, more austerity. Get this: they want the Greek government to go after pensions and raise the pension age to 67. How small can you get. Yeah, let’s hit the old people, smack ‘em around a bit more, see how much more they can take.

If Greece is thrown out of the Eurozone, what's to stop it chucking its debt down the toilet?

Novel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz had this to say about Germany: What has been demonstrated is a lack of solidarity by Germany. You cannot run a eurozone without a basic modicum of solidarity. It is really undermining the common sense of vision, the sense of common solidarity in Europe. I think it's been a disaster. Clearly Germany has done a serious blow, undermining Europe. Asking even more from Greece would be unconscionable. If the ECB allows Greek banks to open up and they renegotiate whatever agreement, then wounds can heal. But if they succeed in using this as a trick to get Greece out, I think the damage is going to be very very deep.” 

The Telegraph has a photo showing French President Francois Hollande, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at the start of Eurozone leaders' summit on the Greek crisis at the European Council. All three men mighty chummy. Not too long ago Juncker called Tsipras a terrorist. I guess he’s buried the hatchet. Good. Let there be love.

The preceding photo shows Merkel, Tsipras and Hollande. Not chummy at all. Not so much love there. Mind you, it would be hard to love Angela Merkel. CNN is showing the footage of both over and over.

Tsipras spoke to US treasury secretary Jack Lew today. Huh. Wonder what they said. Bear in mind that Barack Obama said you can’t keep squeezing a country that’s in the midst of a depression. 

Tsipras said to reporters a few hours ago, “We can reach a deal tonight.” He paused and added sardonically, “If everybody wants it.”

Pope Francis, speaking in Paraguay, criticized the gap between rich and poor: “I ask them not to yield to an economic model which is idolatrous, which needs to sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit.” He said that the ancient practice of worshipping golden calves had returned “in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy.”

Whether they deserve it or not, the Greek people are being sacrificed on the altar of Eurozone money.

Greek Bailout and Reform: BBC Doesn't Give the Whole Picture

Here’s the great thing about the BBC; if you have a complaint about the news you can message them. My complaint is that their reporting of Greek’s position is so bloody biased. I’m sick to death of the perspective that the Greeks are a lazy, irresponsible, hopeless, greedy good-for-nothing bunch with a leader who has no integrity. I clicked ‘contact us’, selected ‘complaints’ and answered a bunch of questions, each with its own pestilential pop-up page.

I dismissed the pestilential pop-up thought ‘couldn’t they have put all of these on one page?’—silly, it’s the BBC. They wouldn’t be so dumb as to put complainers through unnecessary hassle.

Finally I get to ‘for complaints about the news’ go to another bloody site. I take a deep breath—actually I lie. I do some highly appropriate, imaginative and very satisfying ranting and raving, then I take a deep breath and go to the bloody site. Where there’s no ‘complaints’ section. But there is one for ‘do you have an idea for a news story?’. I believe I do, I thought, and clicked on that. Below is my letter to them.

"My idea is unique and you'll pardon my sarcasm I hope and not see it as reason to dismiss my suggestion. Why not present both sides of the story regarding Greece; those who don’t support Greece and those who do? You could also place as much emphasis on the humanitarian crisis as you do on the money. 

You seek responses from European ministers to the latest Greek proposals and present only the Lithuanian finance minister saying there is no trust left for Greece. You don't interview Francois Hollande or Christine Lagarde on the same subject but why not? If you presented all three, side by side, we'd have a different picture.

On that matter, why don't you interview Professor Paul Krugman and ask for his views on austerity? Or interview Angela Merkel and pin her down on the fairness or otherwise of half of Germany’s debt being forgiven after WWII and the rest restructured on terms purely based on Germany’s capacity to repay. And these generous countries were the ones Germany had decimated; they had plenty of reason to punish Germany. The country had harbored and promoted a psychopath and numerous serial killers, the consequence of which was to wreak havoc on the entire world.

Why don’t we see this talked about over and over again in conjunction with the hardline stance of Angela Merkel et al? Why don’t you expose the hypocrisy of Germany today? It’s very relevant. 

Your reporters and anchors talk about 'reform' all the time as if reform was only about saving money but you never mention, in the same breath, which is when it needs to be mentioned to present the truth, the negative economic aspects of that ‘reform’. You rarely mention the humanitarian consequences and when you do you don't place it side by side with the austerity hacks' perspective.

But you should, because you boast in your PR that BBC has the best news coverage. It doesn’t. You don’t have anything different to SkyNews or CNN. This is an instance where you could truly lead. The double standards in the way Greece is being treated and how that treatment is being covered are off the charts. There are two possible conclusions, as far as I can see. Either the BBC editors aren’t smart enough to see what’s happening, or they’re plenty smart and the BBC doesn’t want to tell the truth.

Neither is particularly flattering. On thinking about both these options they kind of lead to one: The BBC news team is a lazy, irresponsible, hopeless, greedy good-for-nothing bunch with a leader who has no integrity."

p.s. Don't feel too bad. Take consolation from the fact that SkyNews and CNN are just as bad.