International Politics Thread - Disease and Disaster

[Rufus]

History needs to turn a page already.

[Rufus]

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/greece-referendum-troika-eurozone-by-joseph-e--stiglitz-2015-06



http://www.thelocal.es/20150701/the-ten-most-repressive-aspects-of-spains-new-gag-law

[Kara]

Joseph Stiglitz is writing articles I read in far-left periodicals years ago. The world has gone truly mad.

[VomKriege]

France said that Assange could talk to her hand. Serves this pompous asshole right. I mean he's not even the relative of an African president, what did he expect ?

[Great Rumbler]

"It's coming after us." Like a modern day horror movie, this was the Australian prime minister's theatrical response to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the aftermath of the triple onslaught in Kuwait, France, and Tunisia. The attacks, he says, "illustrates once again, that as far as the Daesh [ISIL] death cult is concerned, it's coming after us".

And the message is getting through. Australians are scared.

The latest poll by the influential Lowy Institute suggests most Australians feel less safe than any time in the last decade. Of those polled, a majority (69 percent) see ISIL as a high risk to Australia's security.

While Australians may be terrified, the coalition government is riding high on a renewed wave of support.

The newly self-assured Tony Abbott is polling strongly after a shaky start to the political year in which his leadership was challenged by a vote from within his own party. Just months ago, it seemed unlikely that he could survive the year with his premiership intact.

Ugh, I'm really not looking forward to the very real prospect of ISIL fear-mongering figuring heavily into the 2016 election here in the US, and it wouldn't even take very much to get that ball rolling, either.

[benjipwns]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/01/europe/greek-crisis-memes/

[Great Rumbler]

CNN is basically the Fox News of non-Fox News news media.

[Kara]

THE YEAR IS 20XX

DANK MEMES HAVE BEEN OUTLAWED

ONLY OUTLAWS USE IMPACT FONT

[Joe Molotov]

[Courage]

Looks like the NO vote is leading at ~55%

Varoufakis said they could reach an agreement as early as Monday and banks would open on Tuesday. I hope it's true, I have relatives tremendously suffering due to the 120 euro limit.

[Great Rumbler]

Looks like the NO vote is leading at ~55%

Well, I guess Greece will either get a better deal from Germany or descend into total chaos.

[Rufus]

Our government isn't going to change their mind unless they absolutely have to, they have their voters' backing (who at this point just want to see Greece punished).

[Courage]

Looks like the NO vote is leading at ~55%

Well, I guess Greece will either get a better deal from Germany or descend into total chaos.

So far, it looks like German politicians are resisting the talks for improved bailout terms. We're either gonna see a German referendum or the Grexit actually comes to fruition.

[brob]

https://medium.com/@gavinschalliol/thomas-piketty-germany-has-never-repaid-7b5e7add6fff

 

[Rufus]

I read that on Zeit.de. The comments weren't very entertaining though.

[Brehvolution]

"It's coming after us." Like a modern day horror movie, this was the Australian prime minister's theatrical response to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the aftermath of the triple onslaught in Kuwait, France, and Tunisia. The attacks, he says, "illustrates once again, that as far as the Daesh [ISIL] death cult is concerned, it's coming after us".

And the message is getting through. Australians are scared.

The latest poll by the influential Lowy Institute suggests most Australians feel less safe than any time in the last decade. Of those polled, a majority (69 percent) see ISIL as a high risk to Australia's security.

While Australians may be terrified, the coalition government is riding high on a renewed wave of support.

The newly self-assured Tony Abbott is polling strongly after a shaky start to the political year in which his leadership was challenged by a vote from within his own party. Just months ago, it seemed unlikely that he could survive the year with his premiership intact.

Ugh, I'm really not looking forward to the very real prospect of ISIL fear-mongering figuring heavily into the 2016 election here in the US, and it wouldn't even take very much to get that ball rolling, either.

Dude, remember the ridiculous Ebola coverage leading up to the last elections? Remember the coverage the day after?

"What's ebola?"

[Kara]

https://medium.com/@gavinschalliol/thomas-piketty-germany-has-never-repaid-7b5e7add6fff

 

So what was the gist of this? I'm not fumbling my way through German to garner gems Thomas Piketty might have dropped.

[Great Rumbler]

"It's coming after us." Like a modern day horror movie, this was the Australian prime minister's theatrical response to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the aftermath of the triple onslaught in Kuwait, France, and Tunisia. The attacks, he says, "illustrates once again, that as far as the Daesh [ISIL] death cult is concerned, it's coming after us".

And the message is getting through. Australians are scared.

The latest poll by the influential Lowy Institute suggests most Australians feel less safe than any time in the last decade. Of those polled, a majority (69 percent) see ISIL as a high risk to Australia's security.

While Australians may be terrified, the coalition government is riding high on a renewed wave of support.

The newly self-assured Tony Abbott is polling strongly after a shaky start to the political year in which his leadership was challenged by a vote from within his own party. Just months ago, it seemed unlikely that he could survive the year with his premiership intact.

Ugh, I'm really not looking forward to the very real prospect of ISIL fear-mongering figuring heavily into the 2016 election here in the US, and it wouldn't even take very much to get that ball rolling, either.

Dude, remember the ridiculous Ebola coverage leading up to the last elections? Remember the coverage the day after?

"What's ebola?"

Yeah, the whole ebola mess was at the forefront of my mind when I made that post.

[brob]

https://medium.com/@gavinschalliol/thomas-piketty-germany-has-never-repaid-7b5e7add6fff

 

So what was the gist of this? I'm not fumbling my way through German to garner gems Thomas Piketty might have dropped.

it was an english translation of die zeit's article, but too late now, german copyright lawyers have descended and mock you for your inability to read their arcane language, which can be found here.

[Rufus]

https://medium.com/@gavinschalliol/thomas-piketty-germany-has-never-repaid-7b5e7add6fff

 

So what was the gist of this? I'm not fumbling my way through German to garner gems Thomas Piketty might have dropped.

it was an english translation of die zeit's article, but too late now, german copyright lawyers have descended and mock you for your inability to read their arcane language, which can be found here.

This might be the same translation, can't tell.
http://thetodayonline.com/httpsmedium-com443gavinschalliolthomas-piketty-germany-has-never-repaid-7b5e7add6fff-2015-07-06/

[brob]

yea, it seems like a copy+paste job. don't tell the lawyers

[Kara]

It's just a Google Translate, lolz.

So the final tally in the Greek referendum was around 60% no? Buckle up y'all.

[Joe Molotov]

It's just a Google Translate, lolz.

So the final tally in the Greek referendum was around 60% no? Buckle up y'all.

I've got my dankest memes locked and loaded.

[brob]

google translate actually does a pretty poor job at it.

[Kara]

Ah yes, it does get better the further on it goes. The first question or 3 read very close to the Translate.

TP really misses the mark (har har) when he tries to place German debt forgiveness outside the context of the Cold War and it's rather disappointing that the privations East Germans did endure to pay reparations don't even enter the conversation, but I suppose it's a bit much to ask that people think of East Germany as anything but the SSD and their victims.

[brob]

My impression of Piketty is built on knowing he called his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century without having read Das Kapital.

[Great Rumbler]

TP really misses the mark (har har) when he tries to place German debt forgiveness outside the context of the Cold War

That's probably the biggest reason that a lot of that debt got wiped away, not from any kind of altruistic standpoint. West Germany was the bulwark against communism, so it was all hands on deck to solidify their economic and political position to keep it from collapsing. Something similar probably happened with Japan, too, and for the same reason.

[benjipwns]

Google Translate just dies trying to handle German, it almost never gets articles right even if you just stick a word in. And half the time doesn't get the word right.

I think part of it is literally programmed to smash known German words together when it can't find the proper one, which to be fair is how the German language is constructed, but still.

I say this with German as my second language.

And by second language I mean I have basic conversational skills and can mostly read it at like a 7th grade level, but can't write it past a 2nd grade level.

And by basic conversational skills I mean the first thing I'll say beyond ordering and stuff is "Ich spreche Deutsch nicht sehr gut" to illustrate the fact and glory of my superior American citizenship and force them into English mode.

[brob]

finally someone who knows what they are talking about

[Kara]

If this means that it is we, the suitably erratic Marxists, who must try to save European capitalism from itself, so be it. Not out of love for European capitalism, for the eurozone, for Brussels, or for the European Central Bank, but just because we want to minimise the unnecessary human toll from this crisis.

 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

#gutted that TF2 hat guy resigned. Where will I get my cheap jokes from now.

[close]

[Samson Manhug]

Seems a pretty good time for this question:

What does Nachrichtensturmbann translate to literally? I am familiar with German but not enough to translate that and Google isn't helping. I understand it means Signals Battalion (military communications/IT) but I want to know the etymology.

[brob]

one of the germans can prolly get at you, but in german you usually can break a long word up in smaller words for easier translation

nachricht (-en, plur.)
strum
bann

[Samson Manhug]

I got that far already, thanks. Sturm means storm. Nachrichten according to Google means news. But it's not actually a news storm, it's a signals battalion. I'm just curious about the word. I know Sturm is used in lots of German units and translates loosely as assault but is used in lots of non-assault unit names.

[Kara]

Nachrict - message, derived from "to right" (richten) originally.

Sturm - storm literally, came to be a military term in World War I (iirc). Sturm und Drang.

Bann - unit (?), dates back to the feudal legal concept ban. (Cf. Heerbann)

Put it together and you get message-military unit.

[Samson Manhug]

A++++++ post would read again

[Samson Manhug]

So literally it translates to messages assault unit. This is funny to me because modern cyber units also try to make themselves dangerous sounding in the same way that the Germans added Sturm. Nachrichtensturmmann is today's DoD cyber warrior.

[Kara]

TBH I'm a bit surprised they use Sturmbann since it was a term used in the structure of the Nazi's parallel military. (e.g. a Sturmbannfuhrer was an SS rank.)

[Rufus]

Asking Merkel to lead.
http://www.thenation.com/article/austerity-has-failed-an-open-letter-from-thomas-piketty-to-angela-merkel/

She will do what the polls say and the polls say put a boot on Greece's neck, sorry.

[Fifstar]

TBH I'm a bit surprised they use Sturmbann since it was a term used in the structure of the Nazi's parallel military. (e.g. a Sturmbannfuhrer was an SS rank.)

Where would it be used other than with regards to the SS?

[Kara]

From the flow of the conversation I thought we were talking about a unit in the present day Bundeswehr that also used that name, hence my surprise. Did I misunderstand that?

[Rufus]

From the flow of the conversation I thought we were talking about a unit in the present day Bundeswehr that also used that name, hence my surprise. Did I misunderstand that?

That terminology definitely isn't used any more. The current equivalent of Nachrichtensturmbann would probably be Fernmeldebataillon. Back to good old French.

[Joe Molotov]

I used to play bass for Pro-Putin Troll Factory.

[brob]

Asking Merkel to lead.
http://www.thenation.com/article/austerity-has-failed-an-open-letter-from-thomas-piketty-to-angela-merkel/

She will do what the polls say and the polls say put a boot on Greece's neck, sorry.

[Rufus]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkel-Raute

[Kara]

I just thought she was a big Diamond Dallas Page fan
 

[brob]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkel-Raute

the antisense to hov's roc 

[Rufus]

http://www.mediapart.fr/en/journal/international/080715/we-underestimated-their-power-greek-government-insider-lifts-lid-five-months-humiliation-and-blackm?onglet=full

'We underestimated their power': Greek government insider lifts the lid on five months of 'humiliation' and 'blackmail'
08 JULY 2015 |  BY CHRISTIAN SALMON

In this interview with Mediapart, a senior advisor to the Greek government, who has been at the heart of the past five months of negotiations between Athens and its international creditors, reveals the details of what resembles a game of liar’s dice over the fate of a nation that has been brought to its economic and social knees. His account gives a rare and disturbing insight into the process which has led up to this week’s make-or-break deadline for reaching a bailout deal between Greece and international lenders, without which the country faces crashing out of the euro and complete bankruptcy. He describes the extraordinary bullying of Greece’s radical-left government by the creditors, including Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s direct threat to cause the collapse of the Hellenic banks if it failed to sign-up to a drastic austerity programme. “We went into a war thinking we had the same weapons as them”, he says. “We underestimated their power”.

[benjipwns]

Senior Advisor: "We're idiots!"

[Rufus]

I kept wandering how revealing the speech patterns must have been to people who know this person.

[VomKriege]

She will do what the polls say and the polls say put a boot on Greece's neck, sorry.

Pulling the boot on the neck, how peculiar for Germans.
Anyway Europe is really playing hard on its TINA motto, aren't they ? 

[benjipwns]

On former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis:

People are asking why he is supposed to be so unpopular with the Eurogroup and the people in power, why they don't like him. And a lot of people say they don't like him because he appears to be lecturing them, because of being arrogant. He thinks this is an academic issue, an economic issue or a technical issue. But what I think is that all these people - especially people in politics, in power, the Eurogroup, fellow ministers - they have seen a phenomenon that is much more different than anything they have encountered in their circle, from those elected, in the normal process of politics.

Because you have a man that has his own style of dressing, he is very self-confident, at the same time he is very friendly, very open, very honest. You know, you ask him a question and he doesn't spin around, he doesn't change the subject, and so this creates difficulty, both to the politician and the journalist, [to] the media. These are two things that show that Varoufakis doesn't fit, but on the other hand he is a celebrity and he creates clashing emotions. You hate him or you love him.

[benjipwns]

The Eurogroup is not a proper democratically-functioning body. They [the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras] discovered that, again, very late, when they [the Eurogroup] wanted to throw Varoufakis out after the referendum announcement. Which was basically a gesture to humiliate. Varoufakis says "Who decides that?" Dijsselbloem says "I decide". Shouldn't there be a vote, shouldn't there be unanimity? Yes but it's not necessarily recorded, there are no minutes taken. He was taping, others too. Why? Because there are no minutes taken. So there is nothing formal.

You can't say "I went to the Eurogroup and Italy said that, Cyprus said that” et cetera. So everybody can come out and say anything they like. No-one can say: "Are you sure you said that? Let’s look at the minutes". There are no minutes. Of course, nobody can come out with a tape recorder. Varoufakis said that of course he kept the minutes of his own, because he was to report to the prime minister, and the others do it too. And the others came shouting "Oh! Varoufakis admitted this, and that".

The other countries in such a set-up had to think [German finance minister Wolfgang] Schäuble is the king, he controls the others, he can raise his voice and say “no". Varoufakis has described incidents that show really how the Eurozone is completely undemocratic, an almost neo-fascist euro dictatorship. You cannot rely on what the others are saying. Varoufakis says that if he could negotiate with one at a time for an hour, the deal would be struck in a day. But you can't do that because each one has different priorities and different people telling him “no”.

You cannot argue too much with Schäuble. It would be dangerous, because you won't get finance, German banks will want their money back, and so on. So it’s a institution where you cannot make your voice heard, so what's the point in encountering [them]? There was no-one else but Varoufakis talking straight. Schäuble has said "How much money do you want [in order] to leave the euro?" He doesn't want Greece in the euro at all. He was the first to raise the issue of a Grexit back in 2011.

[Rufus]

I should translate some Varoufakis headlines from our press. At one point our main shit-rag tabloid got upset about his bike. They were blowing up the fact that it's a "naked" bike, as if there's a hot babe strapped to it.

[Rufus]

She will do what the polls say and the polls say put a boot on Greece's neck, sorry.

Pulling the boot on the neck, how peculiar for Germans.
Anyway Europe is really playing hard on its TINA motto, aren't they ? 

Am deutschen Wesen mag die Welt genesen.

Yup, eat shit or die.

[brob]

was it the german or the british press who was furious about a picture of Varoufakis wearing a nice scarf? that was probably my favorite.

[Kara]

I should translate some Varoufakis headlines from our press. At one point our main shit-rag tabloid got upset about his bike. They were blowing up the fact that it's a "naked" bike, as if there's a hot babe strapped to it.

Naked bikes are usually cheaper than the sportbikes they're derived from. A true proletarian hero.

[benjipwns]

Greece’s international creditors believe its latest debt proposals are positive enough to be the basis for a new bailout worth 74 billion euros, an EU source said Friday.

“There has been positive evaluation of the Greek programme,” the source said, with the EU’s bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism ready to consider putting up €58bn plus €16 bn from the International Monetary Fund for a new debt rescue.

[benjipwns]

Article by former Valve economist:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/10/germany-greek-pain-debt-relief-grexit

Germany won’t spare Greek pain – it has an interest in breaking us
Debt restructuring has always been our aim in negotiations – but for some eurozone leaders Grexit is the goal

[benjipwns]

ATHENS, Greece — Greek parliament passes motion allowing reform proposals to be used as basis for negotiations.

250/300 apparently.

[benjipwns]