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WTF Headline Of The Day: Greek Judges Judge Judges' Pensions Cuts Unconstitutional
As the new Greek government begins 'reforming' the previous administration's austerity reforms and travels the length and breadth of Europe pitching its "we don't want more loans, we want debt reduction" ultimatum, Greek judges back at home have had their own moment of clarity in the new normal. The Greek Court of Auditors ruled on Monday that a decision by the previous government to cut the pensions of judges retroactively from August 2012 was unconstitutional and in violation of the European Convention of Human Rights...
The Court of Auditors ruled on Monday that a decision by the previous government to cut the pensions of judges retroactively from August 2012 was unconstitutional and in violation of the European Convention of Human Rights.
The court noted that the previous administration’s argument that the cuts were intended to curb public expenses in compliance with fiscal targets set out in the country’s bailout program, among others, did not suffice to render these specific cuts constitutional.
In an earlier decision, a wage tribunal and the Council of State ruled that cuts in the salaries of active judges as well as military and police personnel were also unconstitutional.
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Well played judges.
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Only welshing on debts is 'constitutional!'
How convenient. The timing is only coincidental of course. But I thought judges were above the changing wind of politics?
Glad to know that doesn't happen in 'Merica.
short Greece
Austerity for thee... but not for me!
So, all this unity and screwing the bankers is all fine and dandy, but has anyone in Greece started to think about how they're going to pay for all this?
Why not let them return to their roots and dive for sponges.
Anyone else feel like chumming for sharks?
Looking at how things are going, looks like that's exactly what's going to happen.
That, and mail-order Greek brides.
Now you're talking.
Yeah but they export only the big fat ones..
But if that's what you're into...
coming to a country near you!
"Uh oh, fifteen minutes to Wapner"
~Raymond Babbitt
Judges' wage cuts unconstitutional?
Cut judges' arms and legs off, instead!
Better send over a bunch of razors first....they got hair..everywhere...
A juicy pension. It's a basic human right. Along with internet access, health care, food, housing, clothing, a nice car, some pocket cash and condoms. You still gotta buy your own recreational drugs, but hey, the government can't do everything for you.
In many cases, they buy those too. Much of prescription pain killer usage is paid for by Medicaid or Disability/Social Security. Some folks on disability sell their meds to augment their income.
The last two docs I went to were stunned I didn't "want" any prescriptions, that I was not on something already. One was cool, he said "You're just really healthy, aren't you?" He was a sweet heart but I could tell he was willing to write me a script for all kinds of shit. All I would have needed to do was ask, we had a flirty vibe going.
The other one, she had contempt for me that I did not want anything (Insurance requires me to get an annual, that is when I have these encounters). She asked over and over again "Are you sure you don't want anything." Out in the lobby they had a sign, they would not see you unless you first gave them the name of your pharmacy. I don't have one. I had trouble even getting in, I would have left but I needed the check up to keep getting my good rates with my insurer. I finally randomly picked one, the nurse googled my address to see what was near. That young woman tried to sell me all kinds of procedures (an ear cleaning is one I can recall). She was really unhappy I didn't need anything. She left me in the room in a huff. No lie.
I hadn't thought about that. You're right.
Well, I cradle-to-grave it is, then.
Indeed, doctors are the scum of the earth.
Oh Please...
Bankers, Lawyers, and Liberal Progressives are far scum-i-est-er'rer than Doctors by leaps and bounds
Interesting, I note the long running tv show Big Bang Theory now has the adored previously poor girl earning and winning as a pharma rep. That's perfect PR timing.
(yeh travelling so watching cable from time to time, quite an experience after no tv for a while...can't politely express thoughts about the 2 and a half men plot..wth??).
How is anyone going to pay for all of this?
Pfft! Since when does paying for anything have a place in high level macroeconomic decision making?
Roberts ruled that the O-care penalty was a tax, therefore the SCOTUS had no standing to hear the case, but did anyway.
The corruption and hypocrisy is endless if you watch long enough.
Nah, no conflict here in the good ol' USSA.
SCOTUS doesn't make laws here, they just interpret and manipulate the Constitution for the highest bidder........
......or vote the way they are told to keep the blackmail collected on them by the NSA secret.
Wonder if they also give them a numbered account in the Vatican?
What a disgrace and a conflict of interest. The tyranny of the courts continues.
Now that we (the judiciary) have a government that won't leave our headless bodies a ditch.....we now have grown some balls...UNCONSTITUTIONAL !
Wow.
It's good to be the king.
At the coming Convention of the States, where, the Constition will be augmented and the current rogues will be removed and a new US Government formed, I am proposing Judges are to be stripped of their powers. They will be allowed only to make rulings on criminal matters and trials, all their "civil" authority will be gone, assigned to non-binding arbritration panels with no authority to enforce rulings.
Nothing like a little self interest to produce clarity.
self recusal- went out the window long ago..ask mr silver the fixer in NY.
Just the beginning folks, buckle up. Gonna be one hell of an E Ride!
No pi$$ boy, you must wait for the shake.
Greek judges doing for themselves what U.S. judges (Detroit) can't seem to do for city workers.
well you can't expect Detroit to reach the levels of cynical corruption in a 100+ years that the Greeks have perfected in over 30 centuries now can you??
In Californnia the ban on gay marriage was overturned by a gay judge. Also, in California it is illegal to resist an unlawful arrest. Bizzaro world.
banksters did it already:
... the Scientific Department of the Greek parliament has already set an issue for the fact that selling banks' stocks with a price lower than they were bought by the Greek public, as well as other matters of the current bill, as being unconstitutional.
They need to boot these parasites too.
That just shows what kind of persons they are: He who has the gold makes the rules.
Huh....well roll out a guillotine and cancel some judges pensions completely then.
Budget cuts with a flair, I like it! Austerity indeed.
The corrupt will never slit their own throats. Precisey why it must always be done for them...
same as it ever was...
How come it's only unconstitutional for judges?
I wish I could vote to reverse all my debt and any previous reductions in income. Any income reduction must be against some international rights regulation.
Human rights and environment are two of their main smoke screens, these days.
don't forget climate change, though maybe they throw that under environment also.
Yes, it was a violation of "human rights" lol. Everyone is way too hung up on the legality of things instead of the morality.
It's legal for the banks to make infinite bets on the direction of an asset with no collateral and then take trillions of dollars freshly printed out of thin air to make them whole on quadrillions of dollars worth of derivatives.
But it's all legal!
I guess they just hope we STFU about it and get shoved back into our cages.
whatever the issue...human rights, enviro...its actually seems to be about teaching us to desire regulations vs the rule of law. One is far more easily changed and endorsed than the other by a "majority" mob.
Well played.
This is not new
In Lithuania Constitutional Court's Judges judged that cuting pensions does not contradict constitution but lowering judges' wages contradict constitution
In the US congress votes to give themselves a raise, exclude themselves from Obamacare, during the gov't shudown congress continued to receive pay etc etc etc.
Hey man, just calling wrong shit out as I see it.
Orwell is so smart.
I predict a large dose of reality is coming their way.
and ours...
Yep. And these assclowns should be given a second chance, and moar funding so that they can spend another five years pretending to be fixing things, then coming back for more because, well surprize, it didn't work, so give us even more. I hope Germany makes a brutal example out of that failed state and the Mr. Panos mentality.
"In an earlier decision, a wage tribunal and the Council of State ruled that cuts in the salaries of active judges as well as military and police personnel were also unconstitutional."
Are we really at all surprised?... Especially the cost of living increases members of Congress keep awarding themselves with our money that includes health care for life after they leave office and for passing legislation they don't even read that translates into ever higher spending NOT balancing the budget?...
Yeah Greece.. We know how you feel with the anal probes!
Breaking: SCOTUS rules that the US Constitution is unconstitutional.
perhaps they objected to Retroactive pension cut. it is one thing to take a pay cut but if the employer says and i am gonna go back a few years on that paycut and you owe me an additional X number of dollars i hardly think many would find that agreable
We decide no cuts! Now, who wants ouzo? Opa!
When will the headline come how Greeceis out of money.....and cant pay anyone...I say next month...they are stealing it all right now...fast too..you can bet those judges are asking for checks as we speak...
we have officially kicked off the EU universal basic income movement.
Rope, Lamp post, neck. Some assembly required.
I see the FSA is an international problem. The FSA is a bigger problem than Al Qaeda or ISIS in my opinion.
Sooooo Having no money under this line of reasoning must also be "unconstitutional". Which brings up the question. Can judges be taught how to operate nailguns?
Honestly cutting anyone's pension or wages retro-actively sounds like theft/fraud to me...
Its does sound like that initially until you realize that the excessive nature of the government pensions are in themselves fraud and theft. They're just bureaucratized or institutionalized.
Extrapolate to US government employees salary, benefits and points of retirement to be eligible.
And where is the predominance of richest counties?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-income_counties_in_the_Unit...
We have to invalidate contract law or specific contracts - not retroactively steal money but invalidate the entire pension, job or contract if that's the case. Otherwise it's just a mugging.
At least break down the judgement. Where in their constitution does it specify this situation, other than nowhere and this is a loose interpretation from someone voting on their own salary.
What a coincidence! I just voted myself a get-out-of-jail-free pass!
So fuck you,
Charlie Manson
And what is the average federal government salary w/ benefits, and point of retirement, compared to the average American?
You have to consider the mean, median & mode. I think there are 2 million federal workers, but most don't make what the big shots makes... or maybe that all changed under G.W.B. There were lots of promotions and expansion of grades during the war on Terror. DHS probably has lots of High Grades.
I saw some place that federal workers average over $100K, but now don't know where it was, retire at 55 if they want... but notice how people with high incomes don't retire, they don't want to lose power, status, and... the big income. Plus what would hard working Americans do without a job.
Check Congress & Lobbyist... would they quit after the first $2 or $3 Million? No way. Their peers are up in the $30 Million range.
- So maybe a mandatory Retirement for Federal Workers should be considered, spread those jobs around to younger workers, and let the older retired federal workers feel real life, real costs of living, etc.
Imagine just getting rid of make-work jobs. Worthless bureaucrats would be roaming the street. One small example: Go with a flat tax or something similarly simple and you can get rid of half of the politcally biased IRS brown shirts.
You can't have a flat tax in an economy with very rich and very poor. It simply doesn't work, and I wish people would stop talking about it as if it would. It's a foolish idea that unfortunately sounds so good that it gets tossed about regularly.
A flat tax works beautifully in an economy where everyone makes about the same amount of money, and where the range from rich to poor is narrow. We do not have such an economy. We will NEVER have such an economy. There ARE ways it can be done, but we will NEVER, EVER do the things needed to get there. So forget it.
Flat tax is like Peace on Earth...pleasant to dwell upon, but not an achievable goal in our current reality. And like Peace on Earth, leave the ideas about flat tax to vapid Miss America candidates, and let's get on with a REALISTIC tax plan.
2500 years since democracy, these cronies prove that if you don't stick to principal documents, emphasize Pathos, Ethos, and Logos, and educate instead of indoctrinate your citizens with propaganda & spin... your country is founded on stacking shit higher and higher.
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Funny how with all these tyrannical world governments, the US included, the tyrants can't even stop their pilfering act, even when they know the axes are swinging hard and are about to start going chop chop chop.
Let's fast forward to the final chapter and get this over with.
There's been some cases in the US already about judges ruling against pension cuts because it's against their state constitution...
You should listen to me guys. I keep telling you Greece is unreformable.
Good! Very good! Now keep building on this theme, Greece...You begin to lay the foundation, by finding all these little decisions based on the Troika's debt-reduction demands unconstitutional...This leads you towards...
A finding by one of your higher courts that the whole THING was unconstitutional, and thus not binding on the Greek citizenry. Under the theory that you wouldn't hold an entire populace responsible for the ILLEGAL acts of their leaders, especially after the people oust them.
So, the creditors can seek compensation from the OLD GREEK LEADERSHIP who signed on to the plan. Leaving 'the Greeks' with their still hefty, but much more manageable, LEGITIMATE debt.