All Roads Lead To Rome
Submitted by Mark J Grant, author of Out of the Box,
Carlo is lying in a hospital bed. He is sick and I don’t mean the flu; the guy is seriously ill. Uncle Mario has promised to pick up the hospital bill if necessary and so Carlo isn’t so worried about that. The problem is that Carlo is a member of the Roman Soccer League and he is unable to play in the matches. He promises that he will be out soon. He swears that he will be better any day now. The hospital costs build, the doctors’ charges soar and Carlo is no better. In the meantime Carlo borrows and borrows and borrows to pay his bills. The family doctors have all assured both Carlo and Uncle Mario that he will be better soon but it has not been the case. Then a new doctor is brought in; Dr. Beppe. He examines Carlo and he looks at the other doctors and tells them that they are out of their minds. The patient is really sick, the medicine that they have prescribed is not working and Carlo is in danger of dying if something isn’t done. The entire family is horrified with this pronouncement, Uncle Mario takes a hard look at the size of the bill and gags and the family’s cousins in France and Germany begin to panic as Carlo is an important family member. The family doctors insist their medicine is the correct but the patient is lingering and worsening and the priests are hovering in the hallway.
“Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.”
(Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.)
-Cicero
This is Italy. This is precisely the circumstances. This contest will be decided by the mob; thumbs up or thumbs down. Even if you wish to believe in the far flung view that Bersani could form a new government; it will not survive as Grillo can block what he wants and on his own which makes no mention of Berlusconi who is not exactly Bersani’s ally either in spirit or political leaning. Odds on is that a new election will have to be called and that Grillo gathers even more votes as his political positions do not rest upon being a comedian but upon a new order for Italy. You may recall Ronald Regan in our own country, a former cowboy star and the positive affect that he had on America. Grillo may be the Ronald Regan of Italy and it means the worst of scenarios for Europe as the old guard is thrown out, the deceptors by design, and the people, the mob, has the run of the Coliseum once again.
“The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate, it's the sand of the Coliseum. He'll bring them death and they will love him for it.”
-Gladiator
Grillo refers to Berlusconi as “the psycho dwarf.” Grillo’s vision of Bersani is a “dead man walking.” In an interview that Grillo had with the New York Times over the weekend he said he would support neither side and that doing so “would be like Napoleon making a deal with Wellington.” He went on to say that, “We can change everything in the hands of respectable people, but the existing political class must be expelled immediately.” He has called for a nationwide referendum on Italy’s participation in the European Union and indicated that while Italy will pay its debts; it might be done in Lira.
Do not underestimate this man. Do not assume that Italy will go on as usual and that this is just a split between the Left and the Right because this is not the case. Grillo’s call is for a new order, a new way of doing business and a new spirit for the Italians. The day may yet come where he can echo Caesar’s famous words; “I came, I saw, I conquered.” In the meantime yields on Italian bonds are likely to go higher, the antagonism between Italy and the established order in Brussels and Berlin will foment and the European Union may be whacked at its bedrock during the process as Rehn and the rest fiddle while Rome burns.
There is an old saying that, “All roads lead to Rome.” Soon, quite soon, the political leaders in Brussels and Berlin may be reminded of it.
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New World Order? The last nWo didn't turn out so well...
Reagan learned to properly act for the establishment (with some coaxing), perhaps the comedian will learn to jest for the same (with some coaxing). Either that or maybe he has an unexpected cardiac dillema. The powers will not readily hand over their reigns to the chattle.
Who called the priest? It's not even the weekend yet!
attenzione il "drone"
Is "Out of the Box" a giant book of cliche quotes, or is it just the blog entries?
"the patient is lingering and worsening and the priests are hovering in the hallway"
Pretty sure the priest just quit.
Reagan was a real POS but not too bad an actor:
· Destroyed Savings & Loan industry and gave it away for free to the banking mafia
· Flooded America with illegal immigrants by giving them amnesty
· Leveraged buyouts, financial markets manipulations, junk bonds,
· Greenspan's appointment and financial & economic fraud and thievery were legalized
· After all, Reagan was a man with dementia and a WallStreet puppet
· Reagan started the runaway spending spree that now is destroying America
· Started militarization of America and sold America to Zionist Neo-Cons
Beppe Grillo on money and gold: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dEemZ2pVyo …
WOW! He's a real threat to the monetary establishment!
He nailed the Bernanke. "Bip!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve#Officially_reported_gold_holdings
Golden lira.
Notice all the very old and/or very powerful countries with more than 50% of their official reserves in gold.
15 Portuguese Republic 382.5 89.2% 32 Bank of Greece 111.7 81.3% 24 People's Democratic Republic of Algeria 173.6 79.5% 1 United States of America 8,133.5 76.6% 2 Federal Republic of Germany 3,396.3 [11] 73.7% 4 Italian Republic 2,451.8 73.4% 5 French Republic 2,435.4 71.8% 16 Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 372.9 67.7% 54 Slovakia 31.8 67.6% 10 Kingdom of the Netherlands 612.5 61.9% 60 Republic of Cyprus 13.9 58.3% 22 Republic of Austria 280.0 57.0%Make him a US citizen, nothing but bought and paid-for pussies over here.
Vive Italia !!!!
Italy has been rotting for decades but the people smell blood....and fear, not only among the political class but at the vatican. Pope Benedict has abdicated, but not before putting in place a major assault against the homosexual mafia that has infiltrated the catholic church from bottom to top, so to speak, while Grillo takes on the political mafia. Sit back and enjoy the fireworks, it's about time.
Yes, i agree. The Italians will pay for their debts in Lira, the Greeks in drachma and the Americans in dollars. Hopefully when this is done these currencies will be paid in a continuous roll so they can used for what all fiat currencies are destined for.
Iceland as a nation and Grillo as an individual may yet prove that common sense can prevail.
remember that Iceland as a nation was The People going out on the street until their government stopped planning to bail out their overleveraged banks - to the chagrin of UK's government that than proceeded to bail out UK nationals losing their money and then proceeding to a strong-arm policy attempt towards Iceland to pay back. just to keep the memory straight, it had nothing to do with national debt
unelected Grillo as an individual? what about the elected MPs of his movement?
Banks in europe just sounded the alarmbells because their returns are below anything ever seen.
TIK TAK tok...
Itacalypse Now. I'm sick of waiting!
We will realize your dreams soon.
Make sure you'll be prepared!
I thought all roads led to ruin.
Never mind, same thing.
All roads also lead to your parents in law's house, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO TAKE THAT ROAD!
all roads lead to DC-if you want a US job.
if you can pay for the gas
Just import a new one out of Africa who's willing to play for peanuts
If you pay peanuts you get monkeys!
According to press reports, Italian President Napolitano is exploring the creation of a second technocrat government. Italian officials say ECB's Visco is front-runner to take over as premier despite warnings this will be seen as an elitist ploy. Separately, Napolitano wants to bring forward the first parliamentary meeting to March 12th from March 15th in order to begin talks to form a new government. In other Italy related news-flow, Five Star Movement's Grillo warned that Italy should resume use of the Lira currency if the terms do not change. Italian centre-left coalition leader Bersani has said Five Star Movement's Beppe Grillo needs to take responsibility and say how he wants to restructure.
http://ransquawk.com/headlines/daily-us-opening-news-italian-president-n...
This would be a wonderful thing - it would ensure Beppe a majority after the explosion of POed people settled down.
Bring in the technocrats one more time...
Last time.
Send in the clowns...
and if they link the lira to gold.......imagine that....imagine that. ....
Wouldn't that be the last thing they'd want to do? If they want to pay back their debts in Lira the whole point would be to have a curreny they can devalue. If they link the Lira to gold, they'd be paying their debts with gold and that's too "fair".
If they do link the Lira to gold, they will probably contest much of the debt as odious... Now that would be theater worth watching
Gold is not important.
What is important is his threat to repay debt in lira. This would be default and the swaps would trigger.
THAT is what the EU fears.
you mean the other eurozone countries - different club
Derivatives of derivatives of derivatives... a quadrillion bitchez!
Remember that they can decide how many lira = 1 ounce of gold. Consider, they could decide that their 2 trillion in EUR debt = 2 trillion in lira = 100 tonnes of gold. The EU would obviously contest this, but the fun part then gets into discussing fiat in gold terms.
What kind of nonsense is this. The debt was never supposed to be paid back. It's like the story about Fed unwind plan they tell children about.
The irony is they can keep their money as long as they don't threaten with returning it. Then bank depositors in eurozone can feel safe, knowing their "money" is backed by Italian never-to-be-fulfilled promise.
there are signs that the outgoing president is searching for a "monti II" right now. there is already talks about a new technocratic government coming to italy in european newspapers today. but in the end I agree, this will be decided by the mob. I can't imagine the Italians accepting another unelected prime minister when the current one brought only misery to the people...
I hope Grillo avoids dark alleys.
me too. i hope he has very, very good security....
I hope he is very successful.
we came, we saw, he died
Hillary Clinton bitch in Lybia
is this still part of the total recall experience?... I thought I only ordered the bunga bunga....
I'm so excited for the weather to warm up.
ME TO! 15 DEGREES!! WHOEHA!!
I'M SO FUCKING SICK OF ALL THAT GRAY WEATHER!
WHERE IS GLOBAL WARMING WHEN YOU NEED IT?!
I spent all weekend driving around the block and topping off my gas tank, but it's still cold and snowy.
I'm just waiting for all the hot weather + no jobs + not enough food + corruption and political instability = a very interesting March -> October in ClubMED.
Don't forget the stench of their garbage wafting over the piazza...
Here in the Netherlands we had a warm day for the first time this year.
Spring is coming to Europe. It will be hotter than the faux Arab Spring!
when it snows in the winter and is hot in the summer-that is global warming? when I was a kid-30 years ago-we were supposedly starting another ice age