In a previous article we claimed that German Chancellor Merkel had ‘blinked’ in her showdown with Greece’s new minority Far Left Government. Anyone who read the MSM news on Monday might be forgiven for thinking that the Greek leaders had caved to EU (German) demands. The official reports are that Greece will have access to more EU money today and that the deadline for a specific commitment to internal financial savings and reforms is tonight (Tuesday February 24th, 2015).
Greece needs the continued bail-out from the EU, for the country has been living on borrowed money ever since it joined the EU. It has domestic financial commitments to a large portion of its own people in the form of pensions and welfare payments, as well as a commitment to pay interest to international creditors and the EU for money already borrowed. Its Far Left government (no doubt elected by the votes of that portion of the population receiving and depending on Government welfare and pensions) is claiming that Greece cannot any longer pay the interest due to its creditors. It is not willing to cut off or reduce the welfare and pension payments to its voters. Behind its huffing and puffing what it really is demanding is that the creditors take a ‘hair-cut’ and more or less write off the debt.
Germany’s Merkel (on behalf of German taxpayers) and other lenders have been unwilling to write off or write down the debt, or postpone further the interest payment, demanding that Greece instead must cut Government spending and its people accept some hardship. The threat made by the Far Left Government is that it will simply stop interest payments and let the EU go to hell. If it means a Greek exit from the EU, so be it!
In actual fact the Far Left leaders do not want Greece to exit the EU, for they will be stuck with dealing with the incredible chaos and hardship that would inevitably follow. The EU bureaucracy (a power in its own right and not totally identical to the German Government) does not want Greece exiting the EU at any price, for it is expansionist and totalitarian in nature and driven to relentlessly extend its reach.
It is important to understand the bureaucracies that thrive within government and other non-profit organizations. They do not owe their positions to electors or shareholders. They are initially appointed to office and soon outlive the people who appointed them. In the case of the EU, they outlive the politicians who appointed them, become more experienced and knowledgeable than the incoming politicians who they ostensibly serve and are aware that they will outlast those politicians too. They easily manipulate and dominate those political ‘masters’ who are weak or inexperienced, such ‘masters’ often becoming dependent on the bureaucrats for information, face-saving, guidance and survival. When politicians arrive who are knowledgeable and determined, bureaucrats retreat to manipulation, toadying and patience, for such politicians have limited terms of office.
Merkel is probably knowledgeable and determined and she is accountable to German taxpayers/voters. She and the EU bureaucrats will not have identical agendas, for the bureaucrats are unaccountable and could care less about waste, misspending and financial fecklessness. For them there is a bottomless pit of money and credit that can be constantly topped up by the printing presses. In the last resort Merkel is not able to ignore the bureaucrats and will be unwilling to bear responsibility for a Greek exit and all the financial and political chaos that would trigger.
Merkel has extended Greece’s period of credit by three months and Greece’s PM has promised nothing that will stop his voters’ welfare payments. Talk of cutting waste and corruption is meaningless. Does anyone know of a Far Left government that has ever cut waste and corruption? The deadline that has just been passed was the deadline and the new government had done nothing concrete to impose hardship on its voters. It has had the deadline set aside and a new deadline is three months down the road. Merkel could have said no more money until hardship has been imposed and results seen. She did not and the bureaucrats have resumed searching for a face-saver, both for her and Greece’s new leaders.
Two things are possible (apart from external events beyond imagination, such as a Russian invasion of the Baltic States or a world-wide economic collapse) in three months time. One is that the Far Left Greek Government will collapse and a new less confrontational government will emerge or that Merkel will be given a face-saving formula and Greek debt will be solved by EU money printing. We say that the deadline passed without a Greek exit because Merkel ‘blinked’. The reality surely is that Greece, like several other EU countries (and the USA), has debt too large to be serviced or repaid.
Back here in the USA, we look forward to Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. Despite White House rage, the boycott threats of its Democrat troops and a MSM campaign here in the US and in Israel, Boehner and Netanyahu have so far stood firm. Netanyahu’s speech may prove to be a damp squib but we can hope that he will reveal some of the treachery and deceit of the Obama Presidency when dealing with Iran. We say ‘SOME of the treachery and deceit’ because Obama practices both routinely in every sphere.
Netanyahu is coming to serve Israel’s interests, for he is a Jewish Nationalist and recognizes that his country is surrounded by enemies. No doubt back home Israel’s Media Class is living in the typical Media fantasy land of Leftist Utopianism and moral slime. We can be sure that SSM and sexual license is top of its agenda and the future can take care of itself for today and tomorrow appetites must be satiated. On this website we believe it is primarily up to Israel to stop Iran’s acquisition of the bomb but American interests will not be served by the emergence of a nuclear Iran and a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
Pat Buchanan has many good things to say but his Catholic Irish rage that Britain was not over-run by Hitler, thanks to American intervention, has pushed his Isolationism to extremes. There is no place for isolationism in today’s world. Small Nation’s are at constant risk from evil neighbors and Islamic Imperialism. In an ideal world the Western Nations would man-up to their responsibilities to eradicate Islam in Europe and stop Russian irredentism. Japan would do more to defend itself, support Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines. Canada would play more of a world role. It is not America’s sole responsibility to police the world but a militarily weak America, an America that betrays it allies and sucks up to their enemies, an America that lacks a moral compass and is led by a strutting narcissist has left a vacuum that evil forces are occupying.
Good News
Eric Holder’s ‘Justice’ Department has announced that it is unable to manufacture any charge against George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, a volunteer security guard shot Trayvon Martin dead when defending himself in a life-or-death struggle. Martin attacked Zimmerman, in a housing complex at night, viewing him as a “creepy-assed cracker”. Zimmerman, who was exonerated by a Florida Court but had his life ruined by the MSM and the Florida Attorney’s Department, was subjected to a 3-year investigation by Holder.
I don’t think Buchanan was disappointed that Britain was not overrun by Germany. I think he was disappointed that the British elite were focused exclusively on Germany instead of the greater evil, Stalin. The body count is now in, and the communists won by a landslide. And, as you know, they are still around and causing problems. Openly and by stealth. In fact, Britain’s current death spiral has been referred to by others as “Hitler’s revenge”.
We can only hope the EU (Evil Union) flames out in the years ahead. It looks grim for Christians and nationalists at the moment.