52% of Republicans voted against the “speak out” bill which makes NDAs that silence victims of sexual assault invalid.
Consider that. 52% of Republicans want civil NDAs to cover criminal sexual assault, want to silence victims of sex assault. Want to punish them if they report the crimes.
Once again, proving to be the party of Death, Destruction, and DEBAUCHERY.

The one spearheading the opposition is Jim Jordan, who covered up for Richard Strauss who molested over 177 members of the Ohio wrestling team while working with Jim Jordan who was told repeatedly by many students about the abuse but he remained silent and helped cover it up after the fact. Basically he’s the male Gisselle Maxwell, someone who procured victims for and covered for serial child abusers. Big surprise an abuser, child groomer, and pedophile protector wants to silence victims.

A few of those didn't actually ring a bell in terms of having heard them before, and I knew the names of a few that I had heard:

(spoilers, I guess?)
1. I instantly knew that was the William Tell Overture, I would think a lot of people know that one?

2. Know the song, but didn't know the title without seeing it. But I'm sure that I've heard the title (Entry of the Gladiators) before.

3. Didn't know the song (or the title -- Liechtensteiner Polka).

4. Know the song, knew it was Strauss, didn't know it was "Fruhlingsstimmen". Gesundheit. As an aside, the stare plus the eyebrow action in this one is hilariously well-suited to the song.

5. Knew a variant of the song, didn't know it was "The British Grenadiers". Pretty sure I first heard this one as music in the old-school NES game "Pirates" by Sid Meier.

6. Knew the song, knew it was Chopin's "Piano Sonata No. 2 Op. 35", also know that it is commonly referred to as "Marche Funebre" (although that title can be applied to other songs also). Dude also gets a lot of mileage out of the creepy stare at the camera on this one.

7. Don't think I've ever heard this one, didn't know the title (A Dog's Life).

8. Knew the song, knew it was by Strauss, didn't know the title (An Der Scthonen Blauen Donau).

9. Knew the song, knew it was the "Chicken Dance". I'd think that anyone that's ever been to a wedding pretty much has to know this one -- but maybe that's just a midwest US thing?

10. Eventually recognized the song, but not until he got a bit into it. Didn't know the title (Colonel Bogey March). Still think it should 'properly' be titled "Lisa, her teeth are big and green. Lisa, she smells like gasoline."

There are depressingly few journalists who call Osbourne out on his permanent-surplus horseshit....

While we're on the subject, the rhetoric from the left flank of Syriza against austerity seems to be shifting from failed policy to tool of class warfare. Or maybe it's just getting reported more prominently.

The IMF, and Lagarde especially, is also receiving more heat by the day for letting themselves get dragged into this troika business by Strauss-Kahn.

Yet in all this, there still isn't anyone willing to pull the trigger.

They all try to appease the mighty gods of the economy, with austerity chosen as their way of showing penance.

Wall of text incoming. Again.

Sorry. Again.

tl;dr:

Debt relief right away was proposed, was neccessary, and was skipped to protect the European financial system.



You are 100% correct, we both are as convinced as one can be that a disorderly collapse would have been much worse for Greece. Might have turned it into a failed state, if things went really bad.

But the situation in Greece at the time the Troika got involved suggested a textbook approach would work just fine. Greece was insolvent, no two ways about it. A debt restructuring, including a haircut, was required to stabilise the system. Yet it was decided against it, thereby creating an enormous debt bubble that keeps growing to this day, destabilising everything.

Why?

People in Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin knew in May of 2010 that Greece cannot service its current debt, nevermind pay it back. I remember rather vividly how it was presented to us, as it stirred up a lot of dust in Germany. They pretended as if the problem was a shortage of liquidity, even though they knew it was in fact an insolvency. And to provide an insolvent nation with the largest credit in history (€110-130b) is... well, we can all pick our favorite in accordance to our own bias: madness, idiocy, incompetence, a mistake, intent. They threw Greece into permanent indebtedness(?), and also played one people against another. People in Germany were pissed, still are. Not at the decision makers, but the Greek people.

Again, why?

Every European government, pre-crisis, drank the Cool Aid of deregulation, particularly with regards to the financial sector. When the crisis hit, they had to bail out the banks, a very unpopular decision in Germany, given the scandalous way it was done (different story). Like I pointed out before, when Greece was done for, German banks were on the hook for €17b+, and the French for €20b+. So no haircut for Greek debt.

It gets even better. The entity most experienced in these matters is, of course, the IMF. But IMF couldn't get involved. Its own regulations demand debt to be sustainable for it to become involved in any debt restructuring. Strauss-Kahn had the rules changed in a very hush-hush manner (hidden in a 146 page document) to allow the IMF to lend vast sums to Greece, even though they knew it would not be payed back. Former EC members are on record saying the Strauss-Kahn decided to protect French banks this way as a part of his race for President in France. So they changed IMF rules and ignored European law to bail out German and French banks, using the insolvent Greek government as a proxy.

Several members of the IMF's board were in open opposition. The representatives of India, Russia, Brazil and Switzerland are on record, saying this would merely replace private with public financing, that it would be a rescue package for the private creditors rather than the Greek state. They spoke out in favor of negotiations of a debt relief.

And if that wasn't bad enough, there's an IMF email, dated March 25th, 2010, that was published by Roumeliotis, formerly IMF. They put it very bluntly:

"Greece is a relatively closed economy, and the fiscal contraction implied by this adjustment path, will cause a sharp contraction in domestic demand and an attendant deep recession, severely stretching the social fabric."

Even the IMF, who chose parameters according to their own ideology, thought the European program to be too severe. That's saying something.

All that is just about the initial decision. The implementation is another story entirely, with unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats telling a democratically elected government what to do. There are former Greek ministers on record, telling how Troika officials basically wrote legislation for them. Blackmail was common, bailout money held as leverage. The Memorandum of Understanding was to be followed to the letter, and the Troika program was as detailed as a government program, so they really had their hand in just about everything.

The specifics of the program are a discussion of their own, with all the corruption going on. The Lagarde list (2000+ Greek tax dodgers) was held in secret by order of an IMF official – that alone should trigger major investigations. The nationalisation and sell-off of the four largest Greek banks, or the no-bid sale of the Hellenikon area to a Greek oligarch – all enforced by Troika officials.

The haircut of 2012, ~€110b wiped out, came two years late. As a result, it didn't hit any German or French institutions in a serious way. Most of the debt was in the hands of these four largest Greek banks -- NBG, Piraeus, Euro, Alpha – who subsequently had to be recapitalised by Greece to the tune of €50b. Cut by 110, up by 50 right away. Banks were nationalised and shares later sold again, at 2/3 the price. Lost another €15b, because the Troika demanded the sale to appease the markets.

The legal aspects of all this are nightmare-inducing as well. They violated numerous European laws, side-tracked parliaments, used governmental decrees, etc.

Let me just say this: when they forced Cyprus to give away two banks' branches in Greece for a fraction of their worth, Cyprus lost €3.5b, at a GDP of €17b, and those two banks went belly-up. It was pure blackmail, do it or you're out. Piraeus Bank received those €3.5b, and its head honcho had €150m of personal bad credit wiped clean right then and there, all at the command of the Troika. Those €3.5b had to be taken from ordinary folks by "suspending" the deposit insurance, perhaps the most stupid decision they had made so far.

Why did they do it? Because Greece was more important than Cyprus, and Cypriot banks were involved in shady deals with Russian oligarchs. Still illegal, and massively so.

Edit: I cut my post in half and it's still too long.

Needs Blue Danube..

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Airplane, Model plane, remote controlled' to 'Airplane, Model plane, remote controlled, Strauss, Blue Danube' - edited by brycewi19

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Strauss would be so proud.

>> ^Barbar:

Dystopianfuturetoday:
I'm not looking to debate anything here, I'm just curious as to your reasoning for considering Hitchens as an (at least) one time neo-con. What information led you to this opinion? As it seems distinctly opposed to what I've read in his memoirs and other writings.


ill answer for ya @Barber
hitchens was all for the iraq war and went even as far as to say waterboarding was not only NOT torture but necessary.
in his defense he did step down from both those positions.it should also be noted that hitchens actually allowed himself to be waterboarded and immediately (and i do mean immediately) changed his position that waterboarding was most certainly torture.which to me was a tribute to this mans intelligence.a true believer would never change his ideology but the intelligent person,when confronted with incontrovertible evidence,will change.

one final note @Enzoblue
neo-conservatism was anything BUT conservative.the neo-conservative philosophy began in the 1940's by leon strauss from the university of chicago.the basic premise is to use america's military might to secure american interests globally.this small fringe group of intellectuals had very little influence until the late 70's when they co-opted the christian right for their cause.

and so began the conflation of the christian right and american nationalism in the form of the republican party.
oh the delicious irony.

so when you say "old school neoconservative" what you are really referring to is the time the neo-cons had minimal influence (still there though) rumsfeld and cheney being big players during the reagan administration.which of course was made possible by the christian rights entering the political sphere (up till then most churches stayed out of politics).these same players brought in their fellow neo-cons during the bush administration and that administration read like a who's-who of prominent neocons:rumsfeld,cheny,pearl,wolfowitz,amratige,addington,woo.the list is massive.
so it wasnt so much about a change in philosophy but rather this fringe group (catapulted by the naive christian right) as having come into their own in terms of power and influence.

and all i have to say to that merry bunch of fucks is: THANKS DICKHEADS.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Opera, Surprise' to 'Operetta, Surprise, Die Fledermaus, laughing song, Johann Strauss' - edited by therealblankman

With Strauss-Khan's lawyer he'd beat this.

A bit of Strauss would have worked well.

>> ^Deano:
>> ^Fusionaut:
bravo for 'Also Sprach Zarathustra'

Hmmm, I dunno the Strauss isn't really central here and a bit throwaway, so I'm removing it. Sorry!


cool with me!

>> ^Fusionaut:
bravo for 'Also Sprach Zarathustra'


Hmmm, I dunno the Strauss isn't really central here and a bit throwaway, so I'm removing it. Sorry!

In reply to this comment by paul4dirt:
that's actually Johann Strauss "An der Schönen, Blauen Donau" Op.314

You are of course completely correct, I feel the complete fool. Fixed tags and title.

As repentance I have posted this for your musical edification, thanks... http://www.videosift.com/video/Herbert-von-Karajan-conducts-Strauss-Blue-Danube-Waltz

>> ^paul4dirt:
that's actually Johann Strauss "An der Schönen, Blauen Donau" Op.314


You are of course completely correct, I feel the complete fool. Fixed tags and title.

As repentance I have posted this for your musical edification, thanks... http://www.videosift.com/video/Herbert-von-Karajan-conducts-Strauss-Blue-Danube-Waltz