http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/we_are_all_greeks_now_20150712
Chris Hedges

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 14 2015 13:28 utc | 4

I wonder if this threat to use the Turks might not have been the U.S.’s way of dispelling any ideas the Greeks might have had of turning to Russia for support and handing the U.S. naval base on Crete over to the Russians.

Posted by: lysias | Jul 14 2015 14:49 utc | 6

pushing the bullshite down the road to be resolved in the future.. meanwhile, the hopeless situation remains..
threats and more threats… is this all that international politics has come down to?
refugees from africa, syria and etc are already passing thru turkey headed for europe.. sending some to greece instead won’t help out.. i saw the article on the camps on the island of lesbos recently.. only way to get to lesbos is thru turkey.. is that a type of warfare? thank the usa/europe for their continued war in the middle east for creating an ongoing refugee crisis for these countries.. i guess one could blame turkey for that too and a number of other countries. the euro leadership is really out to lunch – paid for by the imf and gang obviously!

Posted by: james | Jul 14 2015 18:56 utc | 8

The complete capitulation of Tsipras and Syriza will destroy whatever is remaining of the Left in Europe. Syriza has been shown to be another feckless political group in a rather dramatic betrayal of the Greek voters that voted for them and in the referendum.
The question: Would Golden Dawn have buckled? If the answer is Yes, then the Greeks are fooked. They better get used to their enslavement.

Posted by: ab initio | Jul 14 2015 19:30 utc | 10

So the EU shitheads who refuse turkey EU membership due to their religion ( mostly ) are now willing to use Turkey to let them loose militarily against Greece ?
I don’t see that happening for a long time, if at all. Seems the threat is not credible in the short to midterm.
Since the debt slavery deal has a three day absurdity window for Parliamentary approval in Greece, these threats are a way to motivate surrender, which Tsipras and most of Syriza are glad to accommodate anyway.
Remember the online jubilation of the referendum from the naifs online. Whatever happened to that jubilation ?
Tsipras and his acolytes used the Democratic values and of human dignity, not even successfully as a bargaining chip, but as fake PR hiding as a fifth column

Posted by: tom | Jul 14 2015 20:06 utc | 12

I’d love to know how much US spying was going on during the negotiations. Everyone in the Eurogroup could probably hear “a mysterious thrid party” breathing and munching donuts in their cellphones.

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 14 2015 23:46 utc | 14

That’s one way to Grexit, become part of the Turkish Empire.

Posted by: fairleft | Jul 15 2015 2:49 utc | 16

I’ve never seen such a massive excuse-making effort on the part of the pseudo-left. Here’s another one, Binoy Kampmark’s ‘The Occupation of Greece: a Financial Coup d’État’. But that’s irrational. How can the imposition of worse austerity be a coup d’etat when it could’ve been thwarted simply by Syriza choosing to leave the Euro?
No, Syriza chose austerity over Grexit. It chose to destroy Greek lives even more and the Greek economy even over. It chose to give the finger to the massive show of anti-austerity popular revulsion on July 5. PERIOD.
Why is the official left pretending Syriza is a victim and not a victimizer? Why is it trying so hard to avert its eyes from obvious betrayal or just stupidity? You’re just an economic idiot if you think even worse austerity is ‘better’ than the Grexit, in even the most fantasy-world conception of a Grexit’s potential problems.

Posted by: fairleft | Jul 15 2015 5:11 utc | 18

“But objectively, the process leading to the disintegration of Syriza has already started. Syriza as we knew it is over and splits are absolutely inevitable. The only issue now is how they will happen and what form they will take.”
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/07/tsipras-varoufakis-kouvelakis-syriza-euro-debt/

Posted by: ab initio | Jul 15 2015 5:55 utc | 20

The Greek Parliament has a report at its disposal already that the debt entered into by prior governments is invalid, unenforcible and repugnant. When the Greek Parliament is polled on the demands of the Troika Institutions to capitulate totally, their likely best response is to repudiate all debt with the offer to service, after examination, only those debts Greece received benefice. At that point, the financial house of cards is finished, nothing the banksters, the Troika Institutions, the EU itself or the Washington/Wall St./City London axis of evil can do to stay the consequences. A true Sampson Solution to the ignorance and arrogance that has been shown to Greece, the Greek peoples and most of the Southern Euro populations (+ Rep. of Ireland). Education is always a costly project, this will be no different. Will the correct people learn?
It is interesting reading what John Maynard Keynes wrote about this very subject concerning German ‘reparations’ at the end of WWI. But then that is for someone who’s memory isn’t measured between nanoseconds and a weekend.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jul 15 2015 7:10 utc | 22

jfl 19: No, blaming Syriza focuses your street protests on Syriza, and places your protests and general strikes in Greece. That is where the pain and death are, and that is where the austerity attack can be defeated.
Blaming the IMF or the Troika places your protests in, where, Germany? Where Schauble is apparently incredibly popular?

Posted by: fairleft | Jul 15 2015 9:56 utc | 24

@8
This is not the death of the European left. On the contrary, the european left died decades ago. Almost all European left parties and intellectuals have long abandoned anticapitalism. In their words they may refer to marx, in their deeds they are socialdemocrats. What has died is the illusion that socialdemocracy can work (although the same people who supported Syriza are doing their very best to blame anything and everything except their own theory and actions in order to save this illusion). Only now, once we are rid of dangerous illusions, can the left as a mass movement with the capacity to change the course of history be reborn.
There can be no more reforms. There can be no more negotiating with capital. There can be no more class collaboration for the benefit of both. There can be no change through “hope” and dreams and negotiations and hip parliamentary movements who promise a peaceful and pleasant revolution. Now is the time to recognise that only force, only brute violence will stop this era of destruction. Now is the time of class WAR.

Posted by: fullcommunism | Jul 15 2015 10:09 utc | 26

Heh Maybe the IMF(ederal reserve) can bail out greece then.. somebody mentioned the likes of Jeff Bezos and Koch brother coveting private greek islands afterall. For a few 100 billion they can get the opportunity to buy them for a few tens of millions hey?

Posted by: aaaaa | Jul 15 2015 12:07 utc | 28

> fair left, ab initio, and fullcommunism, and others.
one point i didn’t add in my prev. post.
This brand of ‘left’ – Syriza, Podemos (worse imho), the French Socialists (differ in other respects) French Left, are total Europhiles. In love…
Their discourse: a better, different, EU – they usually say “Europe” – more social, more integrated, more worker-friendly, and on and on. Look at Yanis V.: he practically wanted to SAVE the EU and the euro (at the start anyway.) Getting them to change is like asking a devout Catholic to Give Up His God! The adherence is really quasi-religious: a-historical, not linked to other beliefs/facts, a question of foundational principles, etc. (That said, it is not why Tsipras folded, but why he had the mandate he had.)
Extreme example, Mélenchon (Left Party) has written a book: Bismarck’s herring, subtitle: German Poison.
A diatribe against Germany, pretty violent. 1 You got it…he is pro-EU + euro. Nuts. M. is educated, he has surely read Spinoza and Nietzsche, he knows history, he is clever and all. I have no idea how he manages the convoluted mental gymnastics, haven’t read his opus.
That is all about to change. Syriza has broken the ‘left EU’ myth.
see for ex. op ed Irish Times July 14 http://tinyurl.com/pt2u7x4
For Greece, this general ‘left’ Europhilia is heightened by the fact that its two enemies Turkey and Macedonia are not members of the EU.
1. from the back cover: .. necrotic .. a grave danger to its neighbors .. arrogance .. a step back for civilization .. a monster .. the child of deregulated finance .. german poison is the opium of the rich .. we must change our lives and change Germany before it is too late .. I denounce the model it imposes for its own profit ..

Posted by: Noirette | Jul 15 2015 13:21 utc | 30

Noirette @30: Agree completely! The entire “coup” narrative is based on deliberately disappearing the choice Syriza made between Grexit and worse austerity.
For the Europhiles, Grexit does not compute, or is a 1950s ‘sin’ like masturbation that cannot even be mentioned among decent people. Anyway, a great mass of cognitive dissonance can be avoided by pretending there was no choice.
That’s why all I do elsewhere is mention the choice Syriza made! I so far have not gotten a single rational response, in other words a response that argues ‘Grexit’ (and rejection of the unpayable debt) would be worse than even deeper austerity.

Posted by: fairleft | Jul 15 2015 15:36 utc | 32

Of course there is always a choice, and there is still a choice. I am confused when Tsipras says now, that he is willing to take responsibility for his country’s bondage. How can the man take responsibility for Greece, when it means that the country becomes an EU colony instead of remaining sovereign. What would his office as Prime Minister represent under those conditions. He also says he doesn’t believe in the new austerity deal, but he is willing to implement it.
Tsipras can sell this to the Pasok and New Democracy MPs and grab a rather sordid hold of a Minority government, but he is facing massive defections from those in his own party, Syriza. This is going to be one hell of a day in the Greek Parliament.
The price that Greeks are being asked to pay is too much.

A new idea has been shoved into the foundations of the EU – the idea that a member state can and will be brought to heel. And brought to heel, not quietly or subtly, but openly and ritually in a Theatre of Cruelty designed for that sole purpose.
The whole idea of making flagrantly provocative demands – the initial insistence that €50 billion of Greek public assets be placed in a fund in Luxembourg being the most spectacular – was to demonstrate, not just to Greece but to all member states, that the EU is now a coercive institution.
And as a coercive institution it has moved into a state of profound division. There is no deeper divide than that between those who are punished and those who do the punishing, between those who are brought to heel and those who shout “Heel!”

–Fintan O’Toole. THE IRISH TIMES (from Noirette’s link @ 30)
The writing was on the wall when Varoufakis got wind of the doctrine according to Schaeuble, that elections held in member countries that are being financially bailed out, are meaningless.

Posted by: Copeland | Jul 15 2015 17:37 utc | 34

The Euro-Summit ‘Agreement’ on Greece – annotated by Yanis Varoufakis
“Read and weep”, as Yanis says.

Posted by: Copeland | Jul 15 2015 18:32 utc | 36

One more thing I’d like to comment on regarding the OXI referendum. My last comment for the day.
The question was on the eu proposals. The Eurocrats chose to portray the referendum as about the euro, as did their internal greek toadies, thus a campaign of political terror was unleashed inside and outside Greece. They knew Greeks favoured the euro, by a big margin.
Thus the idea that the referendum was about the Euro, which fooled a many of people, including a lot on the left. It was never about the euro, but about Eurocrat proposals of the hor. Greeks knew this wasn’t the question about the euro, so they voted overwhelmingly OXI.
The Germans and their allies proceeded sadistically to teach the Greeks who voted OXI, 80% young people, a lesson for their insolence, and now we are here.

Posted by: Thrasyboulos | Jul 15 2015 18:58 utc | 38

@30 @37
‘ ps the overwhelming number of Greek citizens support the euro and and EU. ‘
Looks bleak if that’s the case … but the euro and the EU are not ‘Europe’. The struggle is between transnational corporate finance and humanity, taking place in Europe, in Greece.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 15 2015 19:39 utc | 40

Syriza Leadership Reject ‘Humiliating’ EU Deal for Greece

“The proud NO of working people in the referendum does not allow the government to give up in the face the pressures of the creditors.”
The rebellion of a majority of members of the Syriza central committee comes hours ahead of vote by Greek lawmakers on the deal reached with creditors. Their dissension also essentially means that the prime minster has lost the support of his own party.

But what will the Parliament do? I guess that’s what’s got the US’ IMF spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about Dr. Schaeuble’s cure?
Greece as a Euro ‘Economic Protectorate’

That settlement, should the Greek parliament vote to approve, will result in Greece not only losing control of its currency and monetary policy, as it did by joining the Eurozone. It will mean another deep loss of economic and political sovereignty. Like the terms of a treaty, the parliament will not be able to legislate changes later. The Privatization Trust Fund will remain in control of Eurozone bureaucrats who will oversee the management of the fund, make its decisions, and sign its checks.

If ‘their’ Parliament doesn’t vote NO! the Greeks are going to have to do it themselves.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 15 2015 22:54 utc | 42

Greek parliament approves debt deal and first reforms to avert Grexit

ATHENS, July 16 (Xinhua) — Greek parliament approved on early Thursday an omnibus draft bill ratifying the debt deal the government reached with creditors on Monday and the first round of reforms requested as prerequisites for the immediate release of international aid to avert imminent default and Grexit.
The plenum passed the bill that paves the way for the finalization of the Greek third bailout and introduces a first set of taxation and pension system reforms, with 229 votes in favor out of 299 MPs taking part in the roll call vote. On the other hand, 64 deputies in the 300-member strong chamber voted against the bill and six lawmakers abstained.

Up to the Greeks themselves.

Posted by: jfl | Jul 16 2015 0:21 utc | 44

@45
While I agree that Greek Parliament could better represent Greek citizenry, we both know that concept has been deprecated in favor of plutocratic rule.
I just read an article that quoted Tsipras as saying he signed the agreement with a knife to his throat. This whole kabuki has a few scenes to go before casting some of the actors into the pits of hell.
What is sad about it all is the suffering that must go on as part of the ongoing sickness that is global plutocratic inheritance and accumulation of private property.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 16 2015 1:09 utc | 46

Posted by: Copeland | Jul 15, 2015 2:32:31 PM | 36
Thanks for posting YF’s sobering critique of the non-bailout bailout.
There are striking parallels between the financial deal offered to Greece and the Nuke deal offered to Iran.
In each case there is a studiously unexamined presumption of “guilt” (blame the victim?).
Each ‘deal’ could be portrayed as an offer (from a gaggle of wealthy & arrogant Colonial Vampires who specialise in crippling countries) to kelp their victim walk again. But only if the victim promises to shoot himself in both feet as a pre-condition.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 16 2015 2:44 utc | 48

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 15, 2015 10:28:59 PM | 47
Nice idea but it overlooks the Greed factor. For at least 40 years Capitalism’s course has been controlled by people for whom too much private wealth could never be enough.
Phase I was the privatisation of commercial property (via the Leaseback tax break scam) and residential property (via the negative-gearing tax break scam).
Phase II appears to be the private ownership of entire countries. And if Greece succumbs it will be merely the first of many more.
None of this would matter if the rich weren’t so greedy and adept at tax-evasion and avoidance. But they are getting better at buying governments and legalising tax (and regulation) rorts.
The poverty caused by current levels of plunder by the wealthy can be explained largely by changes to taxes on the rich since 1960, worldwide. As one example, UK’s top marginal tax rate in 1960 was 95%+. And most countries had (ant-accumulation) Death Duty/Tax (UK, almost uniquely, still does although not as stringent as in the 1960s).
Spin tanks, paid for by the Rich, successfully conflated the concepts of “Fair” and “Responsible” tax regimes as a convoluted variation of Democracy.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 16 2015 3:53 utc | 50

Even WSWS has fallen into the ‘coup/blackmail’ narrative promoted by Syriza excuse-makers who want to misdirect working class anger. I respond:

It’s unfortunate to see WSWS fall into the “dictated,” “coup,” “blackmail” narrative foisted on us by Syriza excuse makers. Syriza had a choice, Grexit or deeper austerity. (I note that, like much of the mainstream analysis, you don’t even mention the word ‘Grexit’ in your report/analysis.) Syriza chose austerity, and having that choice means it was neither blackmailed nor dictated. Instead, the problem is with Syriza and either its corruption or its irrational but apparently unbreakable love of the Eurozone. Probably both.

Thrasyboulos @35: Thank you but your explanation of the coalition is irrelevant. There is no ‘coup’ if there is a choice between two alternatives: Grexit, reinstatement of the drachma, or deeper austerity. Syriza chose deeper austerity and that is its responsibility and to its complete discredit. No one forced them not to Grexit. You write:

The alternative proposed is the drachma. Perhaps, but I am not competent in economics to judge the feasibility of this given the five months allocated to Tsipras since his election, and with the Greek banks shut, money supply vanishing, and the Greek economy in total disarray. I myself favour the drachma and Greece leaving the Eurozone…maybe one day.

None of your ‘poor Syriza/Tsipras’ excuses are relevant, because Grexit is perfectly doable, takes minimal advance planning, and there is much experience with currency changes. It’s all explained in Bill Mitchell’s easily understandable essay, A Greek exit is not rocket science.
The more important thing to do is to compare what Syriza decided to do to Greece — abuse it with massive, life-shortening, despair-maximizing austerity — with what could have happened if it had decided for 1., Grexit and a relatively undervalued drachma, 2., renouncing its unpayable debt, and 3., installing a common-sense, Keynesian, deficit-financed (in drachmas) economic development/recovery program for Greece. Think about that. It could’ve started on July 5, the day 61% of Greece rejected an austerity plan much less severe than the new Syriza Austerity.

Posted by: fairleft | Jul 16 2015 6:24 utc | 52

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 15, 2015 11:53:13 PM | 50
Well, we’ve already seen lots of twists and turns.
The fact is:

> The British refuse to be a part of any solution;
> The IMF do not want to be involved;
> How the ‘bridge loan’ happens is still uncertain;
> Yanis spoke of how Schauble wanted to see a GRexit;
> The IMF Report makes it clear that the Greek debt problem is bigger than people have been led to believe;
> The Summit Agreement – which only authorizes negotiations – must be followed by negotiations that will add weeks of uncertainty;
> The 50bn Euro Privitization was tried before and failed.
> European and Greek economies are unlikely to improve much in the next 3 years so this 3rd bailout only increases the problem (considerably).
>The Greeks are a convenient scapegoat now – but the more that the can is kicked, the more the European public will see the Euro core as being at fault. With #itsacoup, that process is already well underway.

The timing of the leaking of the ‘secret’ IMF Report is also questionable. The IMF had already said that they would not be a part of any third bailout unless there was debt restructuring. Yet everyone assumes that the Report was released because the IMF doesn’t want to be involved.
At the Summit negotiations Tsipras had pushed for the IMF to NOT be involved. So the IMF could’ve simply made their position clear (again) to Germany and ‘the Institutions’ privately. Instead they publicly described the full extent of the problem. This publicity didn’t help the Greeks because it has already been agreed that they will not get debt restructuring/re-profiling until a positive review – which is many months away. It does, however, broadcast the magnitude of the problem to Euro Parliaments (and their citizens) that must approve the Summit Agreement.
I have no crystal ball. Like everyone else, I will be waiting to see what happens. But if one or more Parliaments do not approve of the Summit Agreement, it seems to me that the IMF Report will be a major factor in their vote.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 16 2015 6:34 utc | 54

jackrabbit@ 47: “This deal is toxic.”
Tentatively I came to the same conclusion about the vote of approval, following on the perception that in order to make as bad a deal as possible and as hard a compliance, the EU ptb were in effect already abandoning Greece. This gives an interesting twist to Tsipras’ insistence that the Greek parliament must vote yes, though I doubt his intention is more than just to knuckle under and have some sort of relief for the immediate term. I could be wrong on that, but thanks for the reminder that the chicken’s barely hatched – just a tapping on the inside of the shell so far. I do wish it were strong enough to break out on its own!

Posted by: juliania | Jul 16 2015 6:49 utc | 56

47
South Carolina is far more credit-indebted than Greece, but the United States was already taken over by the Private Fed Bank Coup a CENTURY ago, and they forgive the debt, while the Technocrats live off a $4 TRILLION a year skim, …and of course, Oligarchs own everything. These are also the States with the highest number of people on Federal welfare, like Greece.
If “the USA can never default, because the Fed can always print more money,” then what are Federal Income Taxes for?! For the purpose of BICYCLING OUR PENSIONS INTO THEIR TAX HAVENS~!
2/3rds of all Federal contracts disappear down the Black Hole of IDIQNB war profiteering, a Deep Mil.Gov that we know loses track of $250 BILLION every year and will never be audited.
Oh, look! A squirrel!

Posted by: Chipnik | Jul 16 2015 10:55 utc | 58

Hoarsewhisperer @59
Sorry, only your analogy was nonsense. The analysis was … uneven.

Posted by: fairleft | Jul 16 2015 14:46 utc | 60

Poll by Kapa Research published 14/07/15 and conducted post deal.
51.5% consider the deal “positive”.
72% vs 25.3% consider the deal “necessary”.
70.1% vs 25.3% consider that the deal must be voted by the Greek parliament.
64.5% vs 31.2% are against new elections.
48.7% say the Europeans are to blame, while 44.4% say the Tsipras government is to blame for the deal.
68.1% say Tsipras must remain prime minister in any new government. 22.6% would favour another person.
Tsipras favourable 58.8%, unfavourable 40.7%
The attempted political coup by Greek compradors and their foreign dog handlers did not succeed.
Government reshuffle in the offing. Elections maybe in September/Octoger, Grexit maybe further down the road.

Posted by: Thrasyboulos | Jul 16 2015 17:10 utc | 62

It would seem, should someone have their hands upon your neck and throttling the life out of you, the practical thing to do is to stop by any means their continuing that strangulation. Submission (agreement) is normally the most immediately useful signal there is. That the Greek Parliament has done, the banks have been promised ESM backing, how this translates to citizen account withdrawals remains to be seen, but funds should be available to the banks, for liquidity, in the very near term (supposedly). An old saying to the effect: “It is difficult to remember you are there to drain the swamp when you are up to your a$$ in alligators”, applies to the Greek Parliament in their attempt to serve the best interests of the Greek nation. Without having a well considered plan ‘B’ or ‘C’ with which perspective judgments can be compared, there was little else the Parliament could practically do. However, no agreement entered into under duress is binding. Time only will tell whether the agreement holds or fails, time to explore and consider any number of alternatives, their benefits, their costs, and their efficacy. If repudiation of all questionable debts is chosen, it starts the clocks on the Troika Institutions themselves to try to stay their own collapse, Greek exit can provide shelter until another set of institutions more amenable replaces the current cohort of economic thugs.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jul 17 2015 7:59 utc | 64

@ fairleft | Jul 17, 2015 8:19:51 AM | 65
Since you don’t seem to have any idea of what has transpired between Syriza and the Troika Institutions starting before Syriza was elected, please refrain from using naive, your sources of information are better suited for propaganda dispersion. Syriza has been faced with some daily crisis with the Troika Institutions in some form or another and had been responding to demands rather than establishing their programme. You also obviously have some provincial concepts about what was built upon the 1958 Treaty of Rome, dangerously close to wilful ignorance, your horizons are that of a backwoods valley hillbilly for that matter. When FDR established the New Deal, he had both time and public discussions to educate with, Since January, neither has beed available to Syriza except in your vanilla yellow skied world. I think it is the projection of your own naïveté you perceive.
Since this is also the anniversary of MH-17, you probably still think a BUK brought the plane down, is that where you got your parachute implant?

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jul 17 2015 14:55 utc | 66