[Europe] we hebben een serieus probleem

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Europe] we hebben een serieus probleem

Kunster: Dec 24, 2006

Honest Thief posted:

maria marques or that old fashy husk?

Marques.

We're having elections in around a month. Socialist Party will most likely lose the majority they enjoyed mostly from a previous election having Chega (Fascist Party) as the party to scare voters into voting for them.

There's a bit of an underappreciated avenue of criticism on the mainstream right that the other big right wing parties can't help but go "We're going to make conditions worse for the sake of economical responsability \ teaching you to be more mature", which Chega will not straight up say that, even if their policies are stated in more of a "We're going to make life worse... for your enemies!" way. Both saying that he's going to go after unions and "there will curtailing of rights" gets cheered on, going up and calling both the farmers strikes and the police strikes "communism gone uppity and awry" doesn't so much.

Also, the socialist party is being seen as the stabilizing force with their head being most likely the candidate for PM, while the PSD\CDS coalition is being seen as "honest", even if their debate with Bloco lead to a freakout mid debate, the commentators declaring it a victory of mature thought, their propaganda declaring it a victory, and the subsequent threat that the PSD leader wouldn't go for a debate with other two remaining left parties.

It also doesn't help that the major opposition coalition was the marriage between PSD and CDS, the latter that straight up killed themselves to address that their previous leader lost a seat and fully pinned the blame on her compromising on LGBT rights and national health service funding. I say that because they went from 9 people in the parliament to 0. Mostly because there was already two growing parties to do the stuff CDS redesigned itself (Namely, the Right-Libertarian Initiativa Liberal and Chega). Legit the only party to vote no on halting a ban on blood donations, something that even Chega voted on.

There's also the fact that a potential coalition with Chega is part on the rocks, with crying about "what, no sanitary cordon on the LEFT?!!!" even if this year is the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution and Chega embraced the support of two terrorists who did bombings after the revolution as a punishment. Not only that, previous coalitions with Chega lead to it breaking down months later because... surprise, Chega doesn't have a coherent policy other than reaction. Ventura could have pointed out that the PSD\CDS coalition had run previously candidates with the same structure as him, with the candidate for Almada being one of the talking heads for a "crimes of today" morning show and CDS publishing Turner-diary poo poo in the 90's on the "Independent Newspaper", but instead he's choosing to get a sizable portion of the parliament run on a Desantis-like grip. Saying that because his coordinator does make his propaganda like him.

This is probably why there are no "The Left Case for Chega" people, but no inter solidarity between the farmer and cop strikes, with the latter threatening to do a legislative coup on the election during a interview bc the government responded quickly to the farmer's strikes.

Russia as a topic is brought up, but mostly more of a cudgel towards housing price gouging and supply than a cudgel against PCP and the unions. Israel is... surprisingly absent even if part of the Bloco's messaging. No one is gonna scream about KHAMAS at the left even if the commentariat was giddy to do that.

Kunster has issued a correction as of 13:03 on Feb 13, 2024

# ? Feb 13, 2024 12:20

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 23:09

my dad: Oct 17, 2012; this shall be humorous

We are single-handedly keeping up the Russian economy. Why, we launch invisible rockets (like Hamas! Because we're evil!) full of mystery tank assembly kits directly towards specially established Russian dropzones, and to be extra evil, we launch them from silos positioned right next to NATO's Platinum Wolf crew doing military exercises here.

:rolleyes:

# ? Feb 13, 2024 12:28

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

webcams for christ posted:

not even the right nations to be targeting lmao

this is just a fig leaf to be hawkish against China et al, at the expense of the European population.

from the FT in May 2023:

Yup. It's not lost on me that all those policies lead to a rise of fascism in Europe. And also, Ukraine going political seems to make a big difference in their willingness to fight to the last pensioner compared to 2014 or Georgia in 2008. Surely a coincidence?

# ? Feb 13, 2024 12:33

crepeface: Nov 5, 2004; r*p*f*c*

webcams for christ posted:

not even the right nations to be targeting lmao

this is just a fig leaf to be hawkish against China et al, at the expense of the European population.

from the FT in May 2023:

here's the right nation:

US resumes Russian oil imports, defies sanctions

# ? Feb 13, 2024 12:34

my dad: Oct 17, 2012; this shall be humorous

Jokes aside, the EU is already sanctioning our oil industry, not sure what this "for the first time" crap is.

# ? Feb 13, 2024 12:38

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

crepeface posted:

here's the right nation:

US resumes Russian oil imports, defies sanctions

Lmao

quote:

U.S. Imports from Russia of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products (Thousand Barrels)]

# ? Feb 13, 2024 12:39

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

https://twitter.com/seriations/status/1757838585368359072#m

# ? Feb 15, 2024 09:32

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

genericnick posted:

https://twitter.com/seriations/status/1757838585368359072#m

Merely reimposing the wall is not good enough, they should turn back the clock within current German territory to 1648.

# ? Feb 15, 2024 12:21

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

Greece went woke

# ? Feb 17, 2024 06:21

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

mawarannahr posted:

Greece went woke

Wrong, they went trad.

# ? Feb 17, 2024 07:06

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

A Buttery Pastry posted:

Wrong, they went trad.

Tradwoke

# ? Feb 17, 2024 11:36

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

I just heard about this ...

quote:

�Germany is about to pass the "Gesundheitsdatennutzungsgesetz". This bill allows anonymized access for researchers to all German health care data. Data from over 83 million people.
The example given by the health minister for how this might play out: Researchers find an interesting pattern in the data. They request the ministry to ask the matched people for permission to become participants in a study or direct access. If permission is given, the anonymization is lifted in part and a study could move forward. This alone would make Germany a pretty fascinating place for future AI research.

you'd think there'd be some kind of international law preventing Germany from collecting people's genetic information and keeping it in massive databases

# ? Feb 18, 2024 00:05

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

Germans getting up to something again
https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1759281654126756244

quote:

Good phone call w/
@RishiSunak

Shared strong commitment to support 🇺🇦, and for peace & security in Europe

Discussed conflict in Middle East; duty to protect civilian lives

New UK agencies & Frontex working arrangement formalized in coming days to crack down on illegal migration

# ? Feb 19, 2024 00:50

Jon Pod Van Damm: Apr 6, 2009; THE POSSESSION OF WEALTH IS IN AND OF ITSELF A SIGN OF POOR VIRTUE. AS SUCH:
1 NEVER TRUST ANY RICH PERSON.
2 NEVER HIRE ANY RICH PERSON.
BY RULE 1, IT IS APPROPRIATE TO PRESUME THAT ALL DEGREES AND CREDENTIALS HELD BY A WEALTHY PERSON ARE FRAUDULENT. THIS JUSTIFIES RULE 2--RULE 1 NEEDS NO JUSTIFIC

"Greece's former finance minister: I watched my country being destroyed by the EU"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oPO7gQF-Fg

quote:

The European crisis which is getting worse and worse since 2015, deeper and deeper the shift to the right to fascism, to racism, to xenophobia. The subjugation to Washington and NATO, and the United States of the whole of Europe. This is one story. These are not separate stories. One story, the decline, permanent decline of Europe, and it's drifting in a reactionary misanthropic direction.

It's a soul destroying what's happening because you see the problem. It's not if only that were the problem that is a symptom. What happens is we have two kinds of authoritarianism. Two kinds of malignancies if you want. We have the authoritarianism of the so-called liberal establishment in Brussels, in Paris, in Germany.

Extremely authoritarian when I was a finance minister of Greece I saw them in action. They talk about democracy but they hate democracy. Their one nightmare that they have is actual democracy. The people who talk about democracy are the ones who are working very hard to ensure the democracy is a system that legitimizes whatever it is that they do but if the people, the 'demos' go against what they want they just completely annull it. It is propaganda that they care about democracy.

So you've got this authoritarian liberal center and then you've got the reaction to that which is the fascist racist xenophobic ultra right. But these two which appear as enemies are essentially the two different sides of exactly the same coin. They are symbiotic with one another.

I'll give you a very specific example take the president of France Emanuel Macron. I know him personally he's fine I actually quite liked him when when we used to talk on Exchange ideas and so on. But he's the representation of this liberal authoritarian establishment. He's sounds very liberal, very Democratic but he's head of a government that is as we speak, it is presiding over pogroms against French citizens of an ethnic Arab background. They introduced laws by which they can take away your citizenship if you're an Arab French person without you knowing it. No rule of law, this is you know this is what the ultra right are proposing.

So Macron is in power he's only in power because he's opposed to the ultra right. People elected him because he was not Le Pen, because he was not the ultra right, in opposition to the ultra right but in government he introduces the legislation of the ultra right and he needs the ultra right to be against him so that he remains in government to do what the ultra right wants.

It's a great Paradox.

At the same time the ultra right needs Macron Le Pen should thank Macron every day because the reason why she's going doing well in the polls is because of her opposition with Macron. So this opposition is a fake opposition. I'm not saying it's a conspiracy I'm sure they don't like each other. But that's the point they need each other, they may hate each other, but they need each other. Because Le Pen would not be Le Pen without Macron. Macron will not be Macron without Le Pen.

Why are the European xenophobic all of a sudden? It's not that they suddenly decided that they're against the Arabs, the Chinese, and Muslims and so on. No it's because Europe is failing economically. Middle class families are finding it very hard to make ends meet. They cannot see a future for their children which is as good as the past that they had.

So they're getting angry, and when the people get angry it's really very easy for racists, xenophobes to rise the polls. All you have to to do is get up and say it's the foreigners fault, the Jews, the Muslims, the Chinese. That's the easiest way of gaining support at a time when the many the majority are suffering, are struggling, when you have recession.

So yes it's been very hard because you see it's like you're between a rock and a hard place. The rock of the liberal establishment and the hard place of the Neo fascist xenophobes. Because they are supposedly fighting with one another if you're trying to be in between and to be neither with with one nor the other you get squashed. And we've been squashed there's no doubt about that.

The question of of racism I mean in my country in 2015 when I was in government we didn't have any racism. People were coming refugees were coming on our Shores throughout the summer of 2015 we had more than a million people that arrived on our shores. 1 million it's a small country this is not China right. We are 10 million Souls. 1 million arrive in a country of 10 million that is a lot. It's a lot. People rush to the coast to the beach to the coastline to assist to help the refugees.

Now, 8 years later, we're building walls, we're pushing back the boats at Sea killing them. There is just not even criminal negligence there is Criminal Intent. 6 months ago there was a boat laden with 700 people of whom 300 were children and the Greek Coast Guard tried to tow them away from Greek Waters in the middle of the sea. The vessel capsized they all drowned all 600 out of the 700 including 300 children.

So we committed that crime against humanity and people don't care. Why? because after all these years they they've lost hope caught up between these two authoritarianisms. There is not that that we had corruption in Greece, we still do, we always did and we continue to have corruption in Greece but the bankruptcy of Greece has nothing to do with corruption.

Let me give you an example we have a neighboring country just above us north of Greece called Bulgaria. Bulgaria and Greece are quite similar in the sense that we are same corrupt low productivity low investment, amongst the poorer countries in Europe. Nobody talks about the bankruptcy of Bulgaria because Bulgaria didn't go bankrupt. Why didn't they go bankrupt? Not because they were less corrupt. Not because they did things better. No, the reason is the Euro, we were in the Euro and Bulgaria was not in the Euro.

In brief when we had our own currency the weakness of the Greek economy meant that every month, the Greek currency was going down, it was devaluing because, we had a deficit we had the current account deficit trade deficit and therefore, like in every country if you got a chronic deficit except for the United States of America because it's the United States of America is a separate case. It's a different Beast altogether.

But for every other country in the world when you have a constant trade deficit your currency goes down. And that slide of your currency stabilizes the economy, because it makes imports more expensive, exports cheaper. So it pushes your trade deficit back towards zero. It's a stabilizing force the exchange rate.

Also when we had the Greek Drachma German banks didn't want to lend to the Greeks but then we get into the Euro in the year 2000 Bulgaria does not get into the Euro right so effectively the Euro is the Deutsche Mark. Let's not beat about the bush here it's not a coincidence that the Central Bank of Europe is next to the Central Bank of Germany which is in Frankfurt. It is the same it's the same currency.

What happened was that Germany extended its currency to Greece which means that Germany controlled the currency. Suddenly the Greeks become fantastic customers for German Bankers because even though we may be poor compared to the Germans, we have something the Germans don't have. We owned our homes. 80% of Greeks owned the home in which they live. They didn't pay rent so you have an asset, oh a Good thing. So you are an ideal customer for a banker if you have your home, and secondly the Greeks didn't have debt.

Families in Greece in the year 2000 didn't have debt. There were no credit. People didn't have credit cards, they didn't have mortgages, they had low incomes, but they owned their home and they didn't have debt. Therefore they were the German Bankers' best possible customer, that's what a banker wants a customer with collateral and no debt and an income.

After the financial crisis of Western capitalism in 2008 which exactly as in 1929. 2008 was Our Generations 1929. I mean, the similarities are uncanny. It begins with Wall Street there is a banking collapse. That banking collapse rolls over to Europe, to Britain, the city of London, to Frankfurt the banks there, the banks in Paris. And very soon after that you have a recession you have uh the weakest links of the chain countries that are weakest and more prone to deficits and debts collapse like Greece, Ireland, Portugal, then Italy, Spain there is a domino effect.

Governments impose harsh austerity on the lower classes the working classes while printing billions for the finances, for the banks to re-float them to bail them out. And that started the process of fragmenting the European Union of Europe, of pushing our peoples apart, of turning the Germans against the Greeks, the Greeks against the Germans, the French against everyone.

When in reality, what has been happening is there was always a cartel of big business and big finance that was creating the circumstances for this crisis. And then when the crisis happened, the innocent people of Europe paid for that cartel. Every single German bank and every single French bank went bankrupt in 2008, 2009, which means they stopped lending the Greeks, the Greek Banks and the Greek citizens, when you've taken debt you need to keep taking more loans to repay the previous loans keep rolling of the loans over. If your bank says "you owe me a 100 million one, or us or whatever and I'm not going to extend this give it back to me now" you go bankrupt you can't repay it all all at once because your bank doesn't want to extend the loan anymore. So that's why Greece went bankrupt.

If the European Union if the government in Germany for instance were to allow the Greek state to tell the truth that we're bankrupt, we cannot repay those debts. If we admit that then it would be the German government that would have to give even more money to Deutsche Bank to bail them out. Now that was a catastrophe. Because the money they gave to Greece, they didn't give it to Greece. The money went through the Greek Ministry of Finance all the way back to Deutsche Bank. None of that money went none of that money went to Greece.

Instead what went to Greece in the middle of a recession was huge austerity. So we had a reduction of wages by 40% in the middle of a recession, a reduction of pensions 40%, huge increase in in taxes so the economy went into a nose dive that didn't happen in Bulgaria.

Now, didn't they know that if you do that, it's like killing the cow that you want milk from. So they wanted their money back supposedly, right, but they were killing the cow that would produce it, the Greek economy. Didn't they know that? Yes, of course they knew that. They knew they would never take their money back. They just wanted to bail out their own banks.

The facts are terrible. Here are some basic facts that cannot be disputed. The country went bankrupt in 2010 officially. Everybody agrees with that. If you look at our debt today, back then it was 300. Today it's 410, our debt, our income is today lower than it was in 2010, lower. So compared to the day we were bankrupt we have less money and more debt. Where is the recovery? We have less investment today than we had in 2010. We have less investment today than we head in 2004 or in 2002. We have wages that are lower today than they were in 2010 with prices that are much higher. Where is the recovery? And finally we have lost 1 million people. 10% of the population have migrated. These are young people, well educated people. This is the real capital of Greece.

They've stabilized Greece but in a way that you stabilize a patient who is in a coma. The fact that somebody's in a coma, okay, yeah he or she is stable but doesn't mean that they're healthy. This is why politics has acquired such a bad name in Europe and why democracy is finished in Europe because people don't believe in it.

They know their politicians are lying to them they're working on behalf of bankers. Even if the people elect a government like the one I was part of to go against this, that government is overthrown because we were I overthrown. Imagine if a foreign power could switch off every ATM in your country. That's financial terrorism. That's what they did to us.

The media is controlled by the same people who control the ATMs. It's really very simple. It's not complicated. This is not a conspiracy theory. But in this country, in in my country, take the television channels, there are five television channels. Each one is owned by an oligarch who owns the power stations. They didn't own the electricity power stations 10 years ago when I was a government. After my prime minister surrendered, these oligarchs got the power stations they're laughing all the way way to the bank. Imagine being given a power station in the middle of an electricity crisis. It's really brilliant. It's like having your own ATM in your own living room, right.

And you own the television channel. Now that television channel is not going to present something like what I said to you because it goes against the interest of the owner of the television. They would be mad to put somebody like me on. And they when they do put me on, they make sure that I'm never heard, that they always interrupt me. And then when I leave the studio, then they talk about the man to destroy Greece and Europe and whatever.

But that's perfectly natural if you hand over the news outlets to the oligarchs who benefit from the surrender of the Greek people and the European people, this is the blanket propaganda that that you're going to get, but it it really is becoming laughable because as you know there's a terrible War happening north of Greece in Ukraine.

In the last two years of this war, awful war. I think the news bulletins of the Greek media are very instructive, not just for here for Greece, but also for you far away, because you see the hypocrisy of power in full technical.

I'll give you an example, right? Now, every single television channel because they are completely in tune with Brussels and Washington supports Zelinsky, Ukraine against Russia, and so on.

I'm not judging that I'm simply relating it to you. They have the Ukrainian flag. People like me, I consider Putin to be a monster, but I also consider what NATO is doing in Ukraine to be a crime. The Never Ending War, the endless war that Washington wants. Essentially, again, Putin and the United States are need one another because they both benefit a lot from this war. The only people who lose out are the Russians, and the Ukrainians, and the Europeans, and the Africans whose food prices are going up through the roof.

Just the fact that I do not take NATO's line that we should be with Zelinsky and with the Azov battalion and you know the Ukrainian troops must invade Crimea, and they must take Moscow, just because I don't agree with that, because I think this is madness, absolute madness and very dangerous for a third world war and so on, I'm being portrayed by these channels as Putin's slave, as somebody who is a stooge of Putin, which is a joke.

They are so gung ho, these channels in favor of Zelinsky in Ukraine. The same owners of those channels carry 65% of Putin's oil. You see what I mean by hypocrisy? Their channels are "Zelinsky! Zelinsky! Zelinsky!.". Their tankers are carrying Putin's oil.

Then they made sure that they use their immense narrative power, propaganda power, their monopoly of the media in order to make sure that nobody outside the world hears anything about Greece, except that Greece is now fine, that it is flying high, that the economic crisis is finished.

So if the problem is a European problem, the the solution cannot be one based on the nation state. It has to be a European solution in 2015, 2016, some of us realize that um the number one priority was to unite the people of Europe, to stop this process of turning the North against the South, the East against the West, to making it clear to the people of Europe that this is not a clash between the rich North and the poor South. But it is a clash between a cartel of big business, which is located everywhere. So it's it's hard to keep going, but there's no alternative to keep going.

# ? Feb 19, 2024 18:25

V. Illych L.: Apr 11, 2008; ASK ME ABOUT LUMBER

Jon Pod Van Damm posted:

"Greece's former finance minister: I watched my country being destroyed by the EU"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oPO7gQF-Fg

i agree with basically all of this except the implication that the solution is working within the framework of an EU-oriented popular movement

# ? Feb 19, 2024 20:07

Cerv: Sep 14, 2004; This is a silly post with little news value.

Jon Pod Van Damm posted:

"Greece's former finance minister: I watched my country being destroyed by the EU"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oPO7gQF-Fg

quote:
The question of of racism I mean in my country in 2015 when I was in government we didn't have any racism.

sure buddy

quote:

Just the fact that I do not take NATO's line that [�] you know the Ukrainian troops must invade Crimea, and they must take Moscow,

and wtf?

# ? Feb 20, 2024 14:50

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

Cerv posted:

sure buddy

and wtf?

He's right

# ? Feb 20, 2024 14:55

Truga: May 4, 2014; Lipstick Apathy

he's right

e: also is it just me or is he spitting way more fire than usual lol

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:05

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

Truga posted:

he's right

e: also is it just me or is he spitting way more fire than usual lol

I've also been getting increasingly mad every year since 2008

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:10

crepeface: Nov 5, 2004; r*p*f*c*

lol yea

i think i never thought europe could get this bad. his new main thing is "techno-feudalism" in which he argues that europe has been technologically colonised by america and the only rival to that is china:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VatYrw0uqjU

i suspect he's trying to rally some kind of inter-european leftist movement. jokes on him tho, europe is the fail continent.

he also wrote a recent article about the two conflicting economic approaches in europe and how they both hosed up.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/o...oufakis-2024-01

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:17

PERPETUAL IDIOT: Sep 12, 2003

Truga posted:

he's right

e: also is it just me or is he spitting way more fire than usual lol

He spits a lot of fire, but his political movement Mera25/Diem is just incoherent. Vote us into the undemocratic EU apparatus and we'll vote for change in the European Parliament (that has no power).

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:23

Orange Devil: Oct 1, 2010; Wullie's reign cannae smother the flames o' equality!

Port of Rotterdam, still the largest port in Europe, processed 6% fewer goods in 2023 than in 2022. Drop primarily caused by coal and containers.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:27

Venomous: Nov 7, 2011

Cerv posted:

and wtf?

is this not NATO's line?

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:28

Cookie Cutter: Nov 29, 2020; Is there something else that's bothering you Mr. President?

Varoufakis does indeed spit fire but I agree with a sentiment i saw someone make elsewhere on SA that he is a classic Eurocom who will twist themselves into knots to avoid applying Marxism to straightforwardly call a spade a spade, and try to make up their own fresh new concepts such as "technofeudalism"

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:31

Truga: May 4, 2014; Lipstick Apathy

PERPETUAL IDIOT posted:

He spits a lot of fire, but his political movement Mera25/Diem is just incoherent. Vote us into the undemocratic EU apparatus and we'll vote for change in the European Parliament (that has no power).

i don't agree with him on the means because EU falling or reforming into something good isn't going to happen in brussels, but reasonable people working inside the bullshit EU apparatus to reign it in even marginally can help millions of people live somewhat less miserably until that future comes around

and who better to work that than true believers?

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:33

Venomous: Nov 7, 2011

Truga posted:

reasonable people working inside the bullshit EU apparatus to reign it in even marginally

This is liberalism + this does not happen

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:36

Truga: May 4, 2014; Lipstick Apathy

some of you dumbasses need to read lenin
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/ch07.htm

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:42

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

Cookie Cutter posted:

Varoufakis does indeed spit fire but I agree with a sentiment i saw someone make elsewhere on SA that he is a classic Eurocom who will twist themselves into knots to avoid applying Marxism to straightforwardly call a spade a spade, and try to make up their own fresh new concepts such as "technofeudalism"

there is a great need to apply marxism to contemporary western political economy, but varoufakis tends to studiously avoid it, using it as a kind of boundary to determine where to stay away from rather than where to stay inside.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 15:49

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Cookie Cutter posted:

Varoufakis does indeed spit fire but I agree with a sentiment i saw someone make elsewhere on SA that he is a classic Eurocom who will twist themselves into knots to avoid applying Marxism to straightforwardly call a spade a spade, and try to make up their own fresh new concepts such as "technofeudalism"

every body's got a book to sell

# ? Feb 20, 2024 16:02

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

Zodium posted:

there is a great need to apply marxism to contemporary western political economy, but varoufakis tends to studiously avoid it, using it as a kind of boundary to determine where to stay away from rather than where to stay inside.

Yup, also

quote:

Austerity by Design - Boston Review]Curiously, no matter how often it is repeated, this experience doesn�t lead him to question his assumption that good ideas are what matter. Even when Sch�uble tells him bluntly in a one-on-one meeting that �I am not going to negotiate with you,� Varoufakis goes on gamely trying to make a deal. Right to his last days in office, he is offering new proposals, all vetted by the highest authorities.

At times the narrative has the feel of a horror story where the protagonist tries to operate by the rules of normal life, only to gradually discover the conspiracy all around him. In Berlin, for example, Varoufakis is invited to a dinner by a couple of leading figures in the Social Democratic Party. The Social Democrats are Merkel�s junior coalition partners but, they assure him, they see the insanity of what is being done to Greece and they want to support him in his struggles with their government. The dinner must be a secret of course�no aides, no press�so they can strategize together. Then, at the restaurant, one of the Germans� phone rings. He hands it to Varoufakis: it is ECB president Mario Draghi, calling to say that assistance for Greece�s banks is being cut off.

quote:

Austerity by Design - Boston Review]Varoufakis makes a convincing case that, contrary to what some have alleged, he did have a coherent plan for dealing with a breakdown in negotiations. But it is also clear that he was not really prepared to use it. In a small but telling detail, the alternative payments system is always described as a �deterrent,� as if it is merely leverage to get a better deal from the authorities, not as a step toward greater independence from them. And while the basics of the plan were in place when he took office, neither he nor his staff seems to have put much effort into developing it further.

Despite all the evidence, he seems to have been convinced to the end that the creditors would eventually come around. It is striking that whenever he talks about the need for more time, the benefits of waiting just a bit longer, it is in the hopes that the creditors will at last see reason. Even after the �No� vote, preparing the alternative payments system is only one of four priorities for his staff; number one is developing yet another offer for the creditors to reject. When he assures Alexis Tsipras, then the Prime Minister of Greece, that Merkel will �100%� accept his new proposal if she is rational, one wants to reach through the page and shake him and say, �Yanis, haven�t you been reading your own book?� The dejected Tsipras has a clearer view of the situation when he replies that new proposals don�t matter: �They want to destroy us.�

I like him, but lmao, don't let him run poo poo.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 16:03

HallelujahLee: May 3, 2009; Can't post for 26 minutes!

yeah i like him he seems to have maybe learned not to be so naive

# ? Feb 20, 2024 16:04

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Man I'm getting mad again about the EU killing Greece

# ? Feb 20, 2024 16:05

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Like that story with the phone call over dinner specifically. Savage freaks.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 16:06

Truga: May 4, 2014; Lipstick Apathy

genericnick posted:

I like him, but lmao, don't let him run poo poo.

thankfully, he's not gonna run poo poo because his party can't get any votes

# ? Feb 20, 2024 16:11

Orange Devil: Oct 1, 2010; Wullie's reign cannae smother the flames o' equality!

Yanis tells on himself in that article when he says he personally likes Macron.

He probably personally liked Merkel too. All these nice personable people. I'm sure if I just explain it to them one more time and make good proposal they will see reason.

Motherfucker can't see through the mask. I dunno if he's just been in high society for too long or what but he fundamentally doesn't realize that these people aren't human.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 16:12

PERPETUAL IDIOT: Sep 12, 2003

In Training posted:

Man I'm getting mad again about the EU killing Greece

Greece should have killed the EU but Tsipras refused.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 16:17

Jon Pod Van Damm: Apr 6, 2009; THE POSSESSION OF WEALTH IS IN AND OF ITSELF A SIGN OF POOR VIRTUE. AS SUCH:
1 NEVER TRUST ANY RICH PERSON.
2 NEVER HIRE ANY RICH PERSON.
BY RULE 1, IT IS APPROPRIATE TO PRESUME THAT ALL DEGREES AND CREDENTIALS HELD BY A WEALTHY PERSON ARE FRAUDULENT. THIS JUSTIFIES RULE 2--RULE 1 NEEDS NO JUSTIFIC

Orange Devil posted:

Yanis tells on himself in that article when he says he personally likes Macron.

He probably personally liked Merkel too. All these nice personable people. I'm sure if I just explain it to them one more time and make good proposal they will see reason.

Motherfucker can't see through the mask. I dunno if he's just been in high society for too long or what but he fundamentally doesn't realize that these people aren't human.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainyK6fXku0

"In May 2015, Greek newspaper Athens Voice suggested that the woman who inspired the song is Danae Stratou, wife of Yanis Varoufakis, a former Greek finance minister. Stratou studied at St. Martin's between 1983 and 1988 and is the eldest daughter of a wealthy Greek businessman."

quote:

Stratou�s grandfather co-founded the textile firm Piraiki-Patraiki, which at one time was the largest employer in Greece after the government. The business went bust but the family wealth remained. The middle of five sisters, Varoufakis�s current wife was a favorite of her father Phaedon but ended up in the world of her mother, Eleni Potaga-Stratou, one of Greece�s most respected contemporary artists.

He is the private school-educated son of Giorgos Varoufakis, a communist sympathizer imprisoned after Greece�s 1945-1949 civil war who later became a steel industry executive. Varoufakis, 54, has written of his formative years: �In truth, Karl Marx was responsible for framing my perspective of the world we live in, from my childhood to this day.�

The couple is a Greek example of the champagne left: He gives a Marxist tweak to economic theories; she makes socially minded art. Together, they retreat into elite enclaves like Stratou�s house on the island of Aegina, where wealthy families mingle with famous Greek artists. Since World War II, when the Greek intelligentsia mixed with the communist resistance to the German occupation, the country has harbored a double helix of rich conservatives and Marxists � often within the same families.

�She�s coming from the highest possible background in Greece. The family Stratou is old money,� says Takis Theodoropoulos, a commentator for Kathimerini, a Greek daily. �But Greek society is a very mobile society. You have changes, class upgrades and downgrades in one generation�s time.�

Jon Pod Van Damm has issued a correction as of 17:00 on Feb 20, 2024

# ? Feb 20, 2024 16:50

Doc Hawkins: Jun 15, 2010; Dashing? But I'm not even moving!

that's wild but what was shatner doing at st martins?

# ? Feb 20, 2024 16:58

PERPETUAL IDIOT: Sep 12, 2003

Jon Pod Van Damm posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainyK6fXku0

"In May 2015, Greek newspaper Athens Voice suggested that the woman who inspired the song is Danae Stratou, wife of Yanis Varoufakis, a former Greek finance minister. Stratou studied at St. Martin's between 1983 and 1988 and is the eldest daughter of a wealthy Greek businessman."

The other funny thing about him that I think isn't widely known enough is that he was chief economist at Valve when they were making Dota 2. I think he can credibly claim to being instrumental in the freemium/lootbox gambling model.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 17:07

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 6, 2024 23:09

Osmosisch: Sep 9, 2007; I shall make everyone look like me! Then when they trick each other, they will say "oh that Coyote, he is the smartest one, he can even trick the great Coyote."; Grimey Drawer

PERPETUAL IDIOT posted:

The other funny thing about him that I think isn't widely known enough is that he was chief economist at Valve when they were making Dota 2. I think he can credibly claim to being instrumental in the freemium/lootbox gambling model.

From what he wrote about his role he wasn't so much designing lootbox mechanics as taking a more academic perspective, with the ability to run experiments granted. How much of this was actually part of how Valve ended up monetising is a pretty open question. The hat economy was definitely already in place at that point, and Riot was happily selling skins. The unique part of Valve's stuff is the way it all is player-tradeable and that it all reverts back to 'real' money (albeit within valve's account control). But even there Valve's approach of letting people do whatever and just take a cut was already well-established.

# ? Feb 20, 2024 17:37

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