Metal Sludge Gossip Board

So the official sovereign value of Greece has been reduced to junk by Standard & Poor. I understand that this means Greece is bankrupt, but what are the political ramifications of this? Technically, is Greece still even a country now?

Standard and Poor's - you mean the people who were consistently giving the big banks super-duper AAA+ ratings right up until the point where they caused catastrophic economic meltdown?

Fuck the rating agencies, they are as incompetent and criminal as the shady banks they serve.

The EU is apparently taking this thing to heart though - they've cut Greece out of the EU voting loop and are attempting to impose some sort of order on some of the real cash-sucking aspects of Greece's economic program, like their incredibly bloated pension system.

The E.U. is also fucking PISSED at the rating agencies and their seemingly completely random system for determining the creditworthiness of a company or country.

It's like the Emperor's New Clothes... those fuckers don't appear to have a clue whether a company is financially sound or not, yet everyone listens to them anyway. The company I work for does this Spiel every quarter: "Our strategy remains geared toward receiving a rating in the single-A category bla bla bla..." Shouldn't be too difficult - a bigger bribe will probably do the trick.

Just saw some news clips, when these riot in the streets they dont fuck around!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTCPj6G7044

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rshdJZruH_0

This dog was Yahoo's lead story today:

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0508/riotdo ... -movement/



Here he is in action (@ 2:40):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdKtBfQikCI

The son of a bitch even has his own Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Riot-Dog/112204342124708

He's been at this for a couple of years and always seems to make it into pictures when a riot breaks out in Athens.

Good to see that Yahoo really focuses on the important stories.

That dog is always there, like a furry Che Guevara. A coincidence?

Sadly, I think this means there will be no trips to Greece in my near future.

ijwthstd wrote:Sadly, I think this means there will be no trips to Greece in my near future.

Why not? I'm contemplating going this summer. Athens might not be the best place to visit, but there are plenty of other awesome places in Greece where people would welcome tourists.

MasterOfMeatPuppets wrote:That dog is always there, like a furry Che Guevara. A coincidence?

Redundant.

I was thinking more like Zelig, or Waldo.

Ug, I think the reason Yahoo focuses on the dog is because they think there's no way to properly explain Greece's economic predicament to the average American in a manner they're able to comprehend. So they focus on a cute animal.

It's a good strategy. After all, as I've recently had occasion to learn - Americans (and a number of English too) respond in an extremely visceral emotional way to cute animals.

I hear the US is gonna print up 50 Billion to ante up for the bailout...

ijwthstd wrote:Sadly, I think this means there will be no trips to Greece in my near future.

vanitybinge wrote:Just saw some news clips, when these riot in the streets they dont fuck around!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTCPj6G7044

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rshdJZruH_0

This needs to be done all around the world. Kick out the motherfuckers who have screwed up the world economy.

I applaud the actions of these rioters who are simply sending the message that 'enough is enough'.

EU = FAIL
GLOBALIZATION = EPIC FAIL

SmokingGun wrote:This needs to be done all around the world. Kick out the motherfuckers who have screwed up the world economy.

I applaud the actions of these rioters who are simply sending the message that 'enough is enough'.

EU = FAIL
GLOBALIZATION = EPIC FAIL

I am fascinated by your contempt for the E.U.

Also weird to see a right-winger applauding anti-globalization anarchists. Just weird!

Ugmo wrote:

SmokingGun wrote:This needs to be done all around the world. Kick out the motherfuckers who have screwed up the world economy.

I applaud the actions of these rioters who are simply sending the message that 'enough is enough'.

EU = FAIL
GLOBALIZATION = EPIC FAIL

I am fascinated by your contempt for the E.U.

Also weird to see a right-winger applauding anti-globalization anarchists. Just weird!

You've just outed yourself as a leftist with a very narrow viewpoint. According to you, one is either a rabid leftist, or an abortion clinic bombing right wingnut. There is no middle ground.

WRONG. There are plenty of people like myself who know that both sides have something to offer, and that only simpletons like yourself believe that someone is either left, or right, but never in between.

Right, but you prove every time you post about the E.U. that you don't know what you're talking about, so to portray this as some kind of nuanced view on your part is preposterous.

Ugmo wrote:Right, but you prove every time you post about the E.U. that you don't know what you're talking about, so to portray this as some kind of nuanced view on your part is preposterous.

Nice way to deflect what I was saying. That schmucks like you are so simple minded that everyone must be pigeonholed into either left wing or right wing. Me posting about the EU has nothing to do with that. Nice try.

Anyway, the EU is failing in every way imaginable, and you keep spruiking it like there's no tomorrow. Methinks it's you who has no idea what he's talking about.

SmokingGun wrote:Anyway, the EU is failing in every way imaginable, and you keep spruiking it like there's no tomorrow. Methinks it's you who has no idea what he's talking about.

How is the E.U. "failing in every way imaginable?" If it's that ludricrous laundry list you came up with in the other post, all of which applies to the U.S. as well, then you'd probably better keep brainstorming.

Have you ever been here?

The Greek system is very indulgent to its citizens and probably would have failed regardless of the EU.

That's exactly it... individual E.U. countries have been living beyond their means. How is that a statement on the Euro or the European Union in general? That's like saying "California is in massive debt.... America = FAIL."

Fuckin' stupid.

SmokingGun wrote:

Ugmo wrote:

SmokingGun wrote:This needs to be done all around the world. Kick out the motherfuckers who have screwed up the world economy.

I applaud the actions of these rioters who are simply sending the message that 'enough is enough'.

EU = FAIL
GLOBALIZATION = EPIC FAIL

I am fascinated by your contempt for the E.U.

Also weird to see a right-winger applauding anti-globalization anarchists. Just weird!

You've just outed yourself as a leftist with a very narrow viewpoint. According to you, one is either a rabid leftist, or an abortion clinic bombing right wingnut. There is no middle ground.

WRONG. There are plenty of people like myself who know that both sides have something to offer, and that only simpletons like yourself believe that someone is either left, or right, but never in between.

Just outed ?

From his days as mattbro to now, it's never been a secret, nor does he try to conceal it.

The only outing that has taken place recently is that some of us were made aware that Ugmo is mattbro.

Yeah, fuck, I was trying to keep my liberal views a secret, but I guess the cat's out of the bag!

Ugmo wrote:Yeah, fuck, I was trying to keep my liberal views a secret, but I guess the cat's out of the bag!

I'm SHOCKED and APPALLED!!

It seems to me that this is a test of one of the reasons for having an EU in the first place, rather than an indictment of its reason for being. It surely does place an increased burden on the stronger member states, but the US has the same setup wherein smaller and poorer states get more Federal tax dollars back than they put in while the strong wealthy states take a net loss. A system that has worked for us for 230+ years despite some ups and downs.

What's the alternative? EVERYBODY in Greece emigrating to other EU states that are healthier because you let their economy collapse? Then Portugal and maybe even Spain doing the same?

This makes the most sense practically as well as compassionately.

SmokingGun wrote:
Anyway, the EU is failing in every way imaginable, and you keep spruiking it like there's no tomorrow. Methinks it's you who has no idea what he's talking about.

They saved the euro. EU=WIN

Ugmo wrote:Yeah, fuck, I was trying to keep my liberal views a secret, but I guess the cat's out of the bag!

lerxstcat wrote: What's the alternative? EVERYBODY in Greece emigrating to other EU states that are healthier because you let their economy collapse? Then Portugal and maybe even Spain doing the same?

In a scenario like that, Britain should let in the Portuguese and Spanish, but say "Fuck No!" to the Greeks.

The Portuguese and Spanish would enhance Englands' National football team and so would be welcome.

MickeyG wrote:

lerxstcat wrote: What's the alternative? EVERYBODY in Greece emigrating to other EU states that are healthier because you let their economy collapse? Then Portugal and maybe even Spain doing the same?

In a scenario like that, Britain should let in the Portuguese and Spanish, but say "Fuck No!" to the Greeks.

The Portuguese and Spanish would enhance Englands' National football team and so would be welcome.

Soccer jokes aside, as an EU member Britain would have NO right to refuse ALL the Greeks entry and immigration status, the dole and public housing if they showed up. This way is better.

Laws get changed all the time, put the military at the airports and ports and in the tunnel.

Go to war with Western Europe, it's not like Britain hasn't done it before.

And after the bullshit of Iraq, you can go to war for anything.

MickeyG wrote:Laws get changed all the time, put the military at the airports and ports and in the tunnel.

Go to war with Western Europe, it's not like Britain hasn't done it before.

And after the bullshit of Iraq, you can go to war for anything.

Britain was a world empire last time it went to war with Western Europe. It is not a world empire anymore. And it still needed the US as a main ally in order to win both world wars with Europe.

Considering how the US feels about secession from unions, I don't know if it would give Britain the kind of military support it would need to secede from the EU in 2010. And what kind of encouragement would it give Russia to see those kinds of developments happening?

All those Western European resources might look really good to Putin and his puppet the current Russian President. And perhaps this is the precise point in history where the US will finally say it's none of our business if Russia dominates Europe, finally. It'd certainly be much cheaper for us to make a deal with Russia than to fight about it.

All of those possible upheavals just to break your own word given to the EU - would it be worth it, even if you could pull it off? Big question...