Friday, May 07, 2010

LET SLIP THE DOG!












I woke up on Thursday morning, after just two hours sleep, to the sound of agricultural-strength garden impliments. I had typed to dawn on my very first roll with Renquist V, and had maybe written more than was good for me. The agricultural-strength garden implements didn’t sound like they were going to go away any time soon, and I figured my only options were homicide or television. I’m probably too old for murder, and the polls were closing in the UK, so I figured I’d check up on the Brown demise. A routinely annoying morning so far. And then the TV wired me into its cable world, where mobs appeared to be burning down Athens, and the NYSE was plunging to hell like a cut-cable elevator, accompanied by so much ill-informed morning media hysteria that it seemed close to a prologue for a remake of The Road Warrior. Which gave me pause.
Later the hysteria calmed down and the bizarre mini-crash was blamed on a typo, which, if believed, is a hell of a way to run a stock market, and, if not believed, is a hell of a lame cover story for some economic version of The China Syndrome. More disturbing, were the cable news hired heads, in full panic, fascist-xenophobe theorizing about how the only way to fix the global economy was to let Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal all fall apart and asset-stripped by the German and US banks. I felt ill. Massed weedwhackers screamed metal machine music. The lackeys superrich are insane, myopic and stupid and if we don’t turn the dogs on them they’ll kill us all.
Jeffrey Kaye has what seems to be a workable analysis on FireDog Lake

“The crisis in Greece and the European Union in general is exposing the deep flaws within the post-Soviet economic and political structure in Europe. The fires in Athens are a harbinger of a bigger crisis to come, one that Americans will have to pay attention to. But do not count on the U.S. press to honestly report what will happen, or the U.S. government to stand aside in neutrality. The Obama administration is pushing the Europeans and the IMF to get the bailout deal in place quickly, even as right-wing Republicans are screaming they will not support the U.S. paying its portion of the IMF bailout funds.The people of Greece seem determined they will not pay for the orgy of corruption and double-dealing that has left their economy in tatters. Whether it was Goldman Sachs playing funny with derivatives to help the Greek government to hide its debt, or German companies rushing to buy up newly privatized industries, or the wide-spread corruption of Greek politicians, they are saying something that American workers and middle class might be thinking, and that has some people afraid: "'let the plutocracy pay'...'Why should we, the little man, pay for this crisis?'” (Click here for more.)

Click here for the Internationale (you’ll feel a whole lot better – and there’s also a nice sheep in the video)
Image from Valerie

The secret word is Unleash

8 comments:

Pepsi said...

Great stuff! I love the idea of a Billy Bragg/Doc40 sing-a-long!

Valerie said...

More photos of this wonderful canine, who has been out on the streets for the last 2 years:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/may/06/greece-protest

stu said...

nothing to do with this but you may enjoy the new dr who on i-player on www.bbc.co.uk.vampire aliens,living in a colony,bringing humans over, rehydrating,changing their appearance.unheard of.just a min..

Unknown said...

This could all be too prophetic as the UK may be soon under the screw of the ConDem party.

Anonymous said...

Can anybody explain why the riot gaurd shields have english lettering?

They do speak greek in greece, right? I mean, their own language and all that?

& Yes, I am stoned / did eat paint chips!

Nick said...

Anonymous, you beat me to it!
So, yeah, why do the Greek police have the word "POLICE" in English on those riot shields? Weirdness.

slinkymalinky said...

The British people have voted and decided... we don't want any of the parties available. My husband is fond of saying 'no matter who you vote for, the government gets in' well this time we seem to have gone for the 'none of the above' option, leaving all the parties fighting over the results. fun, huh?

Anonymous said...

The situation in Greece is (among other things) the result of people voting for the same 2 parties since 1974, knowing full well that both were corrupt and incompetent. The Socialists were Socialist in name only (much like the Labour [Party in the UK) and the conservatives were a bunch of plutocrats. The leftist parties are always in-fighting and favoritism has been a way of life for 35 years. So now most young people are asked to pay for the stupidity and greed of the previous generation. An example: Basic salary can be as low as 700 Euros per month, even if you have a PhD (and I speak from bitter experience). With the new measures, it's going to get lower. That's the sort of thing that makes people furious (not to mention the unbelievably condescending news coverage that presents all of us as a bunch of lazy, jobless caricatures).

That said, the violence of the (self- appointed) "anarchists" this week didn't help. Some thugs threw molotov cocktails at a bank, during a massive demonstration last Wednesday, killing 4 people (a friend of mine got out at the last moment by jumping off the balcony). The event tainted the demonstration, despite the fact that 100.000 people marched peacefully.

In short, the situation is a mess. Apologies for the length of the post.

Dimitris