Given that the Greeks invented democracy, it's only fitting that they're now being given the chance to find out all over again it turns into mob-rule reinvent it. And yes, I know we Greeks have a reputation for mythmaking and perverted sex drama -- but, as I found out during my fabulous trip to Greece last week, those really are the stakes.

Until I went over and witnessed what's happening, I too had become convinced that the real issues were the ones the media are obsessively covering: the effects of a potential sovereign default on the Euro and worries about the crisis spreading to other European countries. But that was silly, as my readers know, there is no such thing as “sovereignty,” that's another myth.
~
But here's the bigger issue: Can a truly democratic union mob movement break the stranglehold of corrupt elites and powerful anti-democratic institutional forces hell-bent on stopping debt spending that have come to characterize not just the politics of Greece, but most Western democracies, including our own republic?

In Greece, public union employees are paid approximat­ely three times what their non-union private counterparts are paid, and rightly so. They retire at 55 (sometimes 50) and draw taxpayer-p­aid pensions for the rest of their lives. This is yet another reason many union members are considered lazy union queens.

First and foremost, there was The Square, Syntagma.

The movement has become a permanent encampment in Syntagma, with a growing number of people taking up residence in the square, vowing not to leave until their insatiable demands are met. Indeed, on Tuesday, a demonstration of 20,000 protesters that started peacefully disintegrated when a group of mostly union thugs young people began hurling stones at the police.

What happens in Greece is not so different from what has been happening in Wisconsin America: a few unions bosses profit, but when the chickens come home to roost (shout out to Reverend Wright!), the pain is not equally distributed -- and what happened is suddenly taxpayers everybody's fault.

The second perspective I got on my trip came during dinner with the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou. Even those stupid Americans who don't follow Greek politics will likely recognize his name. Papandreou is a member of “political kosmos”. Not only was his father Andreas prime minister for two terms, his grandfather held the position for three terms. (the rumors that I had a fling with his grandfather are false rumors!)

And the task confronting the son/grandson is one worthy of the great lazy plagiarizing Greek dramatists such as myself. As Barber at the Financial Times' lies, Papandreou must now rescue his country by "dismantling the system of gluttonous patronage and the parasitism on the state that his father Andreas constructed." Papandreou's tenure has been a no win proposition of trying to satisfy the evil draconian demands of the EU that's keeping Greece's economy afloat, while dealing with the increasing violent unrest caused by the ridiculous union demands of his people. The week before I met him, he'd just narrowly survived a vote of no confidence.

We met for dinner at Kastelorizo, a restaurant in Kifissia, a suburb of Athens where the prime minister lives and where, as it happens, I was born and soon plan to erect a shrine to my own awesomely graciousness. Eating fresh fish followed by fresh fruit, we laughed about the country's deep-seated problems. The saying "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste" has never been more true than it is in today's Greece, so we toasted it. The decay of unabated socialism has been allowed to fester for so long, nothing short of a major crisis could have precipitated the widespread demands for reform.

"What they say is correct, we have to change," Papandreou told me. "Corruption is everywhere -- and even when we change our laws you cannot eradicate corruption overnight." He is, he said, trying to make the government more transparent by posting every bill online before it gets voted on by parliament. I laughed and laughed as that was even funnier than Obama's “shovel ready” joke, and urged him not to bother with that frivolity, it would take 3 lawyers two days to read and understand the bills, besides members of parliament may read and decide not to support the needed larger socialist debt spending reform. His All Holiness Barak I, promised to do that as well, then decided in his infinite wisdom that the people would be better off not knowing what was in the bills before they're passed.

Nevertheless, the media's focus is on the debate about austerity. The forces of the status quo would have you believe austerity is the answer -- that it's the answer in Greece, the answer in Spain, the answer in the UK and the answer in the U.S.

In fact, austerity is not the answer! As the Guardian's Michael Burke shows, the problem Greece is facing isn't due to too much spending. "Falling taxation revenues are the problem," he writes, "as everyone who isn't an idiot knows, the government can never make due with less revenue!!! Capitalism failed because we figured out how to spend faster by buying unions votes than it could generate revenue! "

But the big problem is that, as he told me, "Greece needs a new narrative." I told him we have the same problem here in America, where people are being confused by conflated claims of debt spending and won't stop demanding gov't cuts. If we could both come up with a new hook-line, it could buy us a little more time to syphon off the last bit of wealth the taxpayers have.

I hope with all my heart that Greece will not give in to austerity. And not just because that's where I was born and raised, but because the Greeks' struggle -- the struggle to reclaim mobocracy democracy -- is our stuggle Kampf, too.

All are we saying, is give Greece a chance!

(See an illustrative thread on this very topic from almost a year ago)

Welcome to the Kollektive, Lenniana!

Thanks Princess Nookie!

It disgusts me how happy those reichwing teabaggers are that Greece is facing austerity measures! Even if the only evidence of that being true is some bobblehead on MSNBC saying it.

I propose we double down on Comrade Pelosi's proposition of Unemployment Payment Stimulus. We should increase taxes and pay everyone equally. Let's get this economy moving. (payments to the already rich to be excluded) Rich definition is under consideration by the Central Committee.

I think it might be time comrades! Time for the final blow! We should have our drones in congress propose equal pay for everyone!
Everyone would continue doing their job as usual except the monies that they earn would go to the government, all of it. Then once a month the government would take all that money, divide by 300 million and each person would get a check for that amount!

You may now bask in the glory of collectivism....

Of course this would bring on the glorious world of next tuesday because then people wouldn't be able to afford their homes forcing the gub'mint to seize all homes to prevent the poor from being thrown out in the street. Then we can move more people into these larger homes and everyone will have a home!

Bask again in the glory of collectivism....

"We should increase taxes and pay everyone equally."

Every day that passes without tax increases puts us one day closer to 2012! It takes time to rewrite narratives and implant them into the national psyche, and it will take time to convince voters that because republicans agreed to tax increases, we HAD to go along with it!!

There are always tax waivers for our donators, we'll just attach them to Obamacare waivers.

For now, badger them with false charges of taking pleasure in austerity, to wear them down.

Lenianna, your most equal telling of events and circumstance has moved me! Yet as is often the case of a man with a boot on his head, I remain confounded as to the best course of action ever onward toward Utopia!


Just what would LeninZeus do?

Austerity is not the answer, what is the question?

Major says Beats me!

Comrade Lenianna,
Welcome. Thank you for the excellent report. It pains me to see our Greek Comrades suffering so. The big question is what to do?

Comrades,
I think the time has come for us to make the ultimate sacrifice...Grigori nimbly ducks a roundhouse blow from Pinkie's Shovel... Dear Leader should not be running for re-election as President of the USA ... ducks a huge black boot hurling across the bunker..., he should be campaigning for President of the World. The World needs him Comrades. Is it not selfish of us to keep him for ourselves? Has he not delivered us to the very threshold of Socialist Utopia? It's time Comrades. Greece, Europe, the Planet needs him. Look within your caring hearts my Brothers and Sisters you know this to be true.

Comrades


Right wing racist Republican Rubio must be stopped


There is too much truth in his words for the proletariat to handle or know

Neotrotsky wrote:Comrades


Right wing racist Republican Rubio must be stopped

Yes Neo, this fool is dangerous! I've unleashed the hounds, I suggest you all do the same!

Austerity is Proserity!

Comrades,


Do not fret. As I have mentioned in the past, the gov't of Papa Obama has a plan. Instead of us selling our debt to China, we will just have the Chinese give or donate the money to us!

Indeed, as the Chinese economy continues to grow and prosper, we will be able to play on their "wealth guilt" and their romantic notions of their glorious Communist past. In other words, they may become rich capitalist pigs but they will still feel "connected" to Communism by giving to our great Progressive experiment !

From the "secret" files I have obtained, here is a print of a sample web page the US gov't may soon use in China: