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Greek Government, And Bailout Deal, On Verge Of Collapse Due To Definition Of "Fresh Milk"
The Greek economic collapse, depression and bankruptcy has seen many odd things in its brief and often times violent history (in those days when the violent elements were not on strike), but this surely is the first time when one of the countless Greek bailouts may be on the rocks due to the disagreement over the definition of "fresh milk." No, really. Reuters explains that Greece's government risks another rebellion over bailout terms this week after milk producers lobbied against a move to free up prices as part of efforts to make the economy more competitive. Basically, for Greeks, milk is fresh if it is 5 days old or less, yet according to the always fascinating codex of the Troika, "fresh" can be labeled anything that is as old as 11 days.... including the salmonella bacteria it contains. What's worse, is that the "spoiled milk" scandal, far from a joke, has swept over the country, and now even threatens to topple the government.
The country's international lenders want it to ditch rules, such as limiting the shelf life of fresh milk to five days, that effectively deter importers.
But Greek dairy producers and lawmakers representing farming constituencies are fighting the move to call milk up to 11 days old 'fresh' - the latest in a long line of last-minute disruptions to Greece's bailout reviews with the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Six lawmakers from within the ruling coalition - three from Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's New Democracy party and three from the Socialist PASOK - have opposed the proposal that will be submitted to parliament on Friday as part of an omnibus reform bill that Greece must pass to secure bailout aid.
If they vote against it, Samaras and PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos could be forced to expel them, further reducing the government's slim majority of just 153 seats in the 300-seat assembly.
In other words, there is a possibility that Samaras' government, which nearly brought down the Eurozone after the summer of 2012 elections were almost won by the "anti-bailout" Samaras, will have no choice but to expel enough people from his party to leave it without an absolute 50%+1 majority, and potentially lead to a government collapse! All because of the definition of fresh milk.
Yup: it sure sounds like the European "Union."
The bill - which will pave for the way for up to 10 billion euros ($14 billion) of aid - is expected to pass after last-minute wrangling, but the row has highlighted how powerful lobbies can undermine the country's bailout lifeline.
"You don't need to be an expert to understand that extending the shelf life is aimed at allowing milk from abroad to be labelled as fresh," PASOK lawmaker Mihalis Kassis told Greek radio at the weekend. "If that's a prerequisite by the (EU/IMF) troika then we deserve what we get."
The controversy has captured headlines and days of debate on Greek television, overshadowing expectations that the country will soon be able to raise money on bond markets again.
"It is unfair and saddening, at a time when Greece is spreading its wings to emerge from a rut, that there is such dissonance," Samaras said during a trip to Brussels on Friday.
"MPs drowning in a glass of milk!" the daily Ethnos wrote on its front page on Saturday. "Spoiled milk" proclaimed the center-left Eleftherotypia newspaper's headline.
Why are foreign exporters so interested in penetrating the Greek milk market? Simple: prices. "Greece is the only country in Europe that has legislation to determine the shelf life of fresh milk and the price, at around 1.30 euros per litre, is among the highest in the EU. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says Greeks paid about a third more for dairy produce than the EU average in 2012."
One would think that the Greeks would welcome the competition from abroad, and that the lower price would be a good thing. Well, if cow farms and milkmen account for a substantial portion of the Greek GDP, not to mention employment pool, which apparently in Greece they do, it becomes clear why the nation which is now a complete and utter economic disaster quarantine area, would be leery of allowing any foreign influence to raise its already laughter inducing unemployment rate.
So aside from that, the Grecovery is on pace.
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Srsly?
After 11 days it becomes fresh yogurt
Sounds like lots of sour cream to me.
Tits and ass, bitches. Tits and ass.
how many accounts do you have, Mr Kitty?
Looks like at least enough to explore the many ways to skin a cat.......
No sense crying over spilled milk? Okay fine, but what about spoiled milk?
How will they sit at the cafe all day and smoke wihtout fresh milk in their coffee?
About time for you to receive an IP ban
Nuke the site from orbit.....it's the only way to be sure.
Time comes in the history of nations when they are looking for excuses to revolt.
It's all Greek to me.
Milk ain't fresh till we nuke it, for your safety.
Flash pasteurized.
Found a good source of raw milk a few months ago and enjoying it immensely. Comes in the old style glass bottles too.
Kirk is partial to milk jugs.
Got milk?
I agree Kirk nothing better when its fresh from the tap. I think Vanderbilt can say a few words about that too lol.
One way to make milk last longer is doing the
http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/kumis-colombiano-casero-homemade-colom...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kDfHVaJClg
By the way that cute Colombian gal has a fine receipes web site strongly recommend it, just been perusing it myself since looked up kumis receipes and found it on the search
Helter skelter.
The little lady of Rock & Roll agrees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yL-35VLuaM
I always like the way she looked ummm...kinda dirty, ya know what I mean?
The whey that broke the geckos back.
I alway enjoy the gecko wrestling at the Olympics.
Fresh milk...Isn't that what Drahgi, Yellen, Bernanke, and other central bankers supply?
You are thinking of "the milk of human kindness." No these evil Satanic fuxxx don't supply that.
I don't think it's possible for a post menopausal women to produce any milk let alone fresh milk. A nice lactation video with Yellen and Bernanke would hit the spot, imagine that smiling mug with a big milk moustache. Mummy, I'm hungry. Come little Ben, mummy Yellen has your milk.
PS. Mummy is not a typo.
Dear God... is there nothing politicians and bureaucrats won't piss on with central planning?
How about milk producers put a date of production on the milk container and let the buyer decide? Nah, that'd give too much responsibility and dignity back to the public.
The EU is well past it's expiry date.
... just let them do what they want already. It can only improve things... Can't really make anything worse.
I like fresh milk!
ok, off topic; Japanese comedy is so slapstick actually, I had to share it with you. The Japanese sense of humor is very funny. You just don't notice it all the time. It can sometimes include dinosaurs....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCgDzUtLkCA&sns=em
There is no way local greeks can compete with big producers. Their products will go completely unsold. Then the multinational producers come in and buy the farms on the cheap while employing the former owners at half their prior income. That's how the trade scam works. The US has been running that grift for a long time.
Free trade means defenseless trade without protectionism for protection. Ultimately humans are cannibals that will readily eat each other for the sake of a good deal. Americans have been giving their own jobs away for years by buying the cheap import. Now fewer than ever will expend the effort to grow their own "food" when they can simply eat their neighbor, so to speak. Greek farmers fear cheap imports because Greeks will buy the cheap imports. Greeks don't give a shit about Greek farmers or Greek anything else unless it is Greek Me. Nationalism is dead. Even localism is dead. Is all for ourselves now. No one is worried about a job tomorrow, only the best deal they can get today.
Meanwhile its OK to push for banker bail-in legislation...protection and welfare for 'some' is apparently efficiency of market forces in action.
More bullshit. The bill will pass. The "aid" (aka loan) will be provided, and they will celebrate "access to the bond market" (aka the ability to borrow even more money).
Now do you see why money is meaningless and oil is everything?
Mongo like big breasted tittie milk:-)
That not where choo choo go.
.
Carnation Milk is best of all
No tits to pull, no shit to haul
No pails to wash, no hay to pitch
Just poke a hole in the son of a bitch!
The Troika - coming to your town in the Ukraine to loot and pillage.
Canadian dairy is tightly locked up by the mobocracy. The last time a couple farmers tried to sell fresh raw milk, they got thrown in jail. Breaking the cartel is a work in progress. http://rawmilkconsumer.ca/tag/b-c-raw-milk/
They have been harassing the Amish for selling raw milk in Maryland and around Washington, DC. The Amish are starting to get really pissed off about this and a lot of other things. (They all have scoped rifles for deer hunting so they are probably on a bunch of watch lists.)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/13/feds-shut-down-amish-far...
The only entities that can retain freedom are those who possess great wealth. We are now finding that even wealth is no protection of rights as the act of pursuing wealth appears to compromise a person's standing in the eyes of our government. Only a greedy evil person would want wealth derived from commerce, from the free markets that rely on supply and DEMAND. The only pure, clean wealth is that which comes from the hands of our government, the truly "entitled". All others are morally deficient.
Wonder if Mormons have a workaround. Any Mormons online?
Like other poor and opressed peoples, Mormons are sadly misquoted.
I asked Larry Craig (the Senator) about this situation. After discussing his invention of the 'wide stance' method of evacuation within airports, I quizzed him regarding the term 'workaround'. He looked at me, shaking his head sadly, and described this as a term used in First Third Book of Scrolls, chapter 5, and scolded me for misquoting the word. The correct term, he emphatically admonished me, is 'REACH-AROUND'.
Since he is a full super-secret bishop, third garment degree, and has 'stakes' in all kinds of stuff (like Swire), and his relatives were part of the personal private security team at the Sands when Hughes lived there, I looked at him in 'awe', in the revelation of what he stated. I quickly left, my ass-cheeks clenched tightly, and proceeded to vomit all over the sidewalk outside his location.
Suddenly, I looked up, my spittle dripping off of my chin, and saw the image of the one so holy, Mittens (The Romney)... he (HE!) asked me if I liked fresh milk...
hehehe...funny shit man. I doubt too many got the humor.
Too deep?
"Yasmine Bleeth is hot", said in my best Eric Cartman voice.
We need to impose sanctions on the milk. Just in case.
God help Greece if they open an Asprin factory! Milk is a threat in and of itself, but if they dare to open an Asprin factory, NATO allies will be forced to act!
UDDER LUNACY.
First?
Send in drones to monitor the situation.
You know the world has gone completely insane when..............
From the ridiculous to the bovine....
udderly bovine...
Don't have a cow, man!
I dont get these bailouts, the money goes to Euro banks, Euros are printed from thin air just like the Fed is doing. And the Greeks are getting further in the can. They should of defaulted a long time ago. And as someone pointed out a lot of these new bonds are written up with jurisdictions in London. So they can really go after you even if you default. Its making a bad situation for the Greeks into a terrible one.
Greece has apparently reached the point where it is a camel's back waiting for that straw.
The issue of dairy jobs and the issue of the right to protect their own food supply apparently combined with the fight for Greek daries to survive the globalization of the milk market to produce a winning combination. It sounds as though this wouldn't have happened last year, and evidently it's happening now because the Greek people are beyond fed up and mood of defiance has spread beyond labor, the urban poor and the students to the larger population.
I see reports of folks starting to invest in Greek bonds again. What happens to their investments when Greece exits the Euro?
It's no use crying over spilt milk.
Greece is apparently on the edge of ruin, and all bets are off. Chocolate rations are going to be decreased/increased, and milk will be OFFICIALLY healthy, once again. Fucking dairy cows seem to be the only thing keeping this country alive, so let's tax and regulate that shit to the HILT! BLEED them! BLEED THE PEOPLE DRY! DESTROY, DESTROY, DESTROY what's left, and may they all DIE! TAKE, RIP, REND this nation! SPRAY their air with viruses that KILL ALL COWS! Let mothers cry, as their children STARVE! When the fathers stand up to fight, they will be WEAK, and we shall OVERCOME ALL!
(Sorry, I was imagining what I would do if I was one of the bureaucrats/banksters who is proposing this crap)
On a lighter note, I figured out how to save the intro pic in a better resolution, and stored this pic for further study. The cow pictured seems to have quite healthy mammary glands...
" Fucking dairy cows seem to be the only thing keeping this country alive, so let's tax and regulate that shit to the HILT! BLEED them! BLEED THE PEOPLE DRY! DESTROY, DESTROY, DESTROY what's left, and may they all DIE! TAKE, RIP, REND this nation! SPRAY their air with viruses that KILL ALL COWS! Let mothers cry, as their children STARVE! When the fathers stand up to fight, they will be WEAK, and we shall OVERCOME ALL!"
That's excactly what they are doing now, they are after the PROPERTY called GREECE, but without the natives
ALSO THEY ARE EXPECTING WAOORRR that's why they are behaving without so much of the usual resistance . THEY ARE CONSERVING ENERGY for the BIG ONE,
the ARMED STRUGGLE. sO i WAS TOLD , AND i DON'T KNOW HOW THEY KNOW.
Barusto, the pathological lying corrupted bag of rotting entrails and pure evil, called that fucking insane bitch tyochenko. For advice
Brrr Brrr
Yes,
Its me barusto my little sweet
Oh what do you want, another BJ or a fuck this time if your dick is working yet
No, its not working yet but you have a great mouth , so big and wet and slimy inside. I wan to ask you what I can do about the fucking farmers in Greece.
Nuke the fucking bastards. Get a machine gun you wanker and go blow some holes in heads.
And wheres my fucking money, Get some more of your peasants to cough up, Im sick of doing your dirty work and not getting my billions you promised me.
Yes dear I will ask Siemens if we can get some nukes too
I guess we shouldn't be surprised. The French revolution got rolling over a comment regarding cake(though some argue that was referring to the residue left in people's fireplaces). Why shouldn't the next one be started over sour milk?
When Michelle Obama or Hillary starts going off about cookies and cream, look out!
nice hips
The Weight of Chains details how the IMF and World Bank systematically destroyed the beautiful country of Yugoslavia's economy and brought on the civil war that killed so many of its people. I cant post a link from my phone but encourage those interested to view it on Youtube.
The people of Greece are being led down the same path. It is also instructive for Americans.
€1.30 for a liter of milk is a lot but what is the price construction? How much do the milk producers get (I guess they mean farmers by that)? How much do milk processors and distributors get? How much retail?
In NL a liter costs 90 cents or something and farmers get 30 cents of that.
Long ago it ceased to be about money and is really about control.
You can have money and still not have control.
If you have control, you can take the money.
If Greek milk is priced 33% more than in the rest of the Eurozone, it means the Greek milk producers are very slow to milk those cows or suffer from another form of gross inefficiency beyond size scale.
Greek milk producers win. Not so good for the poor folks in Greece. 33% is a huge pricing difference in a daily consumer item.
The fair solution is to allow the 5 day fresh milk restriction to remain but have no limits on the imports of powdered and UHT (long-life) milk. Those who want to support the local product or drink fresh milk get what they want and those Greeks who are too poor to buy the expensive fresh milk can pay a similar price to other EU countries for a reasonable substitute.
test. sorry