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Europe "Crosses Rubicon" As Portugal Usurps Democracy, Bans Leftist Government
On Thursday evening, we took a close look at how the political landscape has changed in Portugal following inconclusive elections held earlier this month.
For those unaware, the worry in Brussels has always been that either Spain, Portugal or, in a less likely scenario, Italy, would go the way of Greece by electing politicians that would seek to roll back austerity, shun fiscal rectitude, and demand debt relief.
As we’ve noted on any number of occasions over the past nine months, that’s why Berlin adopted such a hardline approach to negotiations with Alexis Tsipras and Yanis Varoufakis. There was never any hope of setting Athens on a “sustainable path.” It was always about deterring more “meaningful” states from going the Syriza route.
Well as it turns out, the troika’s efforts to subvert the democratic process in Greece by using the purse string to overthrow the government apparently did not deter the Portuguese leftists. Put differently, the ATM lines, empty shelves, and gas station queues Greece witnessed over the summer have not had their intended psychological effect in Portugal as Socialist leader Antonio Costa announced earlier in the week that he’s prepared to align with the Communists and with Left Bloc to form a government in defiance of the Right-wing coalition. The Left alliance would have an absolute majority in parliament and would likely adopt an anti-austerity, and perhaps even an anti-euro, platform.
In an effort to head off this eventuality, President Anibal Cavaco Silva appointed Pedro Passos Coelho to serve another term as PM on Thursday. That was a slap in the face for Costa, and as we noted just moments after the announcement, Silva’s decision is likely to leave Portugal mired in an intractable political stalemate which is just about the last thing Europe needs as Brussels attempts to put the Greek debacle in the rearview while confronting the worsening refugee crisis.
Sure enough, Costa is now threatening to topple the government on the heels of what is widely viewed as an usurpation of democracy. Here’s Reuters:
Portugal's opposition Socialists pledged on Friday to topple the centre-right minority government with a no-confidence motion, saying the president had created "an unnecessary political crisis" by nominating Pedro Passos Coelho as prime minister.
The move could wreck Passos Coelho's efforts to get his centre-right government's programme passed in parliament in 10 days' time, extending the political uncertainty hanging over the country since an inconclusive Oct. 4 election.
This set up a confrontation with the main opposition Socialists, who have been trying to form their own coalition government with the hard left Communists and Left Bloc, who all want to end the centre-right's austerity policies.
"The president has created an unnecessary political crisis" by naming Passos Coelho as prime minister," Socialist leader Antonio Costa said.
The Socialists and two leftist parties quickly showed that they control the most votes when parliament reopened on Friday, electing a Socialist speaker of the house and rejecting the centre-right candidate.
"This is the first institutional expression of the election results," Costa said. "In this election of speaker, parliament showed unequivocally the majority will of the Portuguese for a change in our democracy."
Antonio Barroso, senior vice president of the Teneo Intelligence consultancy in London, said Costa was likely to threaten any Socialist lawmaker with expulsion if they vote for the centre-right government's programme.
"Therefore, the government is likely to fall, which will put the ball back on the president's court," Barroso said in a note.
And here’s more from The Telegraph on the effort to undercut the democratic process:
Portugal has entered dangerous political waters. For the first time since the creation of Europe’s monetary union, a member state has taken the explicit step of forbidding eurosceptic parties from taking office on the grounds of national interest.
Anibal Cavaco Silva, Portugal’s constitutional president, has refused to appoint a Left-wing coalition government even though it secured an absolute majority in the Portuguese parliament and won a mandate to smash the austerity regime bequeathed by the EU-IMF Troika.
He deemed it too risky to let the Left Bloc or the Communists come close to power, insisting that conservatives should soldier on as a minority in order to satisfy Brussels and appease foreign financial markets.
Democracy must take second place to the higher imperative of euro rules and membership.
“In 40 years of democracy, no government in Portugal has ever depended on the support of anti-European forces, that is to say forces that campaigned to abrogate the Lisbon Treaty, the Fiscal Compact, the Growth and Stability Pact, as well as to dismantle monetary union and take Portugal out of the euro, in addition to wanting the dissolution of NATO,” said Mr Cavaco Silva.
“This is the worst moment for a radical change to the foundations of our democracy.
"After we carried out an onerous programme of financial assistance, entailing heavy sacrifices, it is my duty, within my constitutional powers, to do everything possible to prevent false signals being sent to financial institutions, investors and markets,” he said.
Mr Cavaco Silva argued that the great majority of the Portuguese people did not vote for parties that want a return to the escudo or that advocate a traumatic showdown with Brussels.
This is true, but he skipped over the other core message from the elections held three weeks ago: that they also voted for an end to wage cuts and Troika austerity. The combined parties of the Left won 50.7pc of the vote. Led by the Socialists, they control the Assembleia.
The Socialist leader, Antonio Costa, has reacted with fury, damning the president’s action as a “grave mistake” that threatens to engulf the country in a political firestorm.
“It is unacceptable to usurp the exclusive powers of parliament. The Socialists will not take lessons from professor Cavaco Silva on the defence of our democracy,” he said.
Mr Costa vowed to press ahead with his plans to form a triple-Left coalition, and warned that the Right-wing rump government will face an immediate vote of no confidence.
Note what's happened here. The will of the people is now being characterized as a "false signal" to "financial institutions, investors, and markets."
In other words, what voters want means nothing. This is about what "markets" and "financial instiutions" want. What the electorate wants is nothing more than a "false signal."
This is precisely what we predicted would happen should the political situation in Portugal not unfold in a way that pleases Berlin and Brussels. Germany and, to a lesser extent, the IMF are now in complete control of the European political process. There's no "democracy" left. It's either get with the austerity program and stick with it, or face the consequences which, as we saw with Greece, could entail the closure of banks and the willful destruction of the economy.
We can however, take solace in the fact that Cavaco Silva's attempts to appease financial markets will invariably backfire, because if there's anything investors hate, it's uncertainty and the move to reappoint Passos Coelho will only serve to bring about a protracted political conflict with the Left. Watch Portuguese bond yields next week for hints as to whether the President's decision has achieved the stated goal of calming "investors" and "markets."
We'll close with the following quote from The Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:
Mr Cavaco Silva is effectively using his office to impose a reactionary ideological agenda, in the interests of creditors and the EMU establishment, and dressing it up with remarkable Chutzpah as a defence of democracy.
The Portuguese Socialists and Communists have buried the hatchet on their bitter divisions for the first time since the Carnation Revolution and the overthrow of the Salazar dictatorship in the 1970s, yet they are being denied their parliamentary prerogative to form a majority government.
This is a dangerous demarche. The Portuguese conservatives and their media allies behave as if the Left has no legitimate right to take power, and must be held in check by any means.
These reflexes are familiar – and chilling – to anybody familiar with 20th century Iberian history, or indeed Latin America. That it is being done in the name of the euro is entirely to be expected.
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Good!
~ Benjamin Franklin
;-)
They had to respond with lightning speed this time.
No time for an adequate smoke screen.
What next?
"it is my duty, within my constitutional powers, to do everything possible to prevent false signals being sent to financial institutions, investors and markets"
The whole market is a fake, you fscking moron. The figures are fucked five ways into falsehood.
"He deemed it too risky to let the Left Bloc or the Communists come close to power, insisting that conservatives should soldier on as a minority in order to satisfy Brussels and appease foreign financial markets. Democracy must take second place to the higher imperative of euro rules and membership."
There you have it, folks, in black and white. The choice could not be any clearer. Do national borders have meaning anymore or not? Either the Portuguese are allowed to rule Portugal according to people they elect, or they must cede political control to the people running the euro project. What's it going to be? Is Portugal a sovereign state? The title of the article is not exaggeration in this case. Greece was betrayed by Tsipras, but at least Tsipras won the vote (he lied 100% about what people would get if they elected him, but he won). Those in charge of the euro project no longer have time for niceties like pretending the people of Portugal have a choice at all. Europe is the "higher imperative". Are the people of Portugal willing to accept that? Which is more important to them? To be Portuguese or to be European? We shall see.
OK OK Okay
No how can I make money on this shit?
http://www.your-poc.com/top-20-defense-contractors-2015/
"Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”"
As in you have the liberty to choose between another Bush and another Clinton?
no. those are the 2 wolves.
liberty is the freedom to reject both.
contesting the vote doesn't necessarily mean disputing the outcome of the vote; in this case i interpret it to mean, contesting the propriety of the wolves' voting to eat the lamb in the first place.
It's also good to remember that while socialists and communists may mean the same thing in the US and Europe, conservative certainly does not.
We must appease the B for IS and the other International Financiers. Free and Fair Elections can only exist when their results meet the approval of Brussels.
We all know that. He knows that. The sheeple don't know that. By making that statement he is, by implication, telling the sheeple that capitalism requires authoritarianism. And they'll believe every unsaid word of it.
If and when keeping leftist utopians out of power requires authoritarianism that's exactly what good men should step in to insure. Lefitist utipians always produce misery and blood baths. I include here mugabe types, Allende types, but also nationalist socialists like Hitler and Mussolini. Way to go Portugal. You learned from history.
Insure??
What the hell does insurance have to do with anything?
yeah, /sarc
"Insure" is New World usage (Yankspeak) for English "ensure". As well as for English "insure".
This is another good one for a T-shirt. I think with this one we got himself a better place in history.
... once people understand what he just said. It's a complex statement.
Indeed, smoke screens are blown away too easily these days, why bother?
The stage is decorated solely for our entertainment. When it no longer matters whether the brick wall in the back is covered or not, they no longer are willing to take the time to maintain the illusion.
The end is near. This I do not fear. It is what replaces the present day reality which is most disconcerning.
On another note....please stop by and read my latest essay (A Failure of Imagination) at www.twoicefloes.com
They HAVE to hit bottom first. As you have noted.
Way to many gleeful people at present to call a bottom. Need a lot more abominations of self.
"You can have any colour you want, so long as we chose it" (with apols to Mr Ford)
That's not a Benjamin Franklin quote. Neal Boortz, maybe. But not Ben Franklin. The word "Lunch" didn't appear in English until decades after he died, and he never said anything like the second sentence. That quote is newer than the internet, for instance.
the quotes I have seen said "dinner"
why u gotta go and be ants at the picnic?
Plato said that Democracy was like going to the butchers for a hair cut (clearly a dangerous activity: mind that cleaver!).
Since Plato and Lincoln, we have had the advent of education for the masses and the mechanisms for testing each and every individual and awarding them appropriate grades. We have also had the rise of the internet, with notable successes such as sites like Facebook that get hundreds of millions of hits a day.
If we were to combine methods from mass education with the instant mass communication the internet provides, we will have a means to allow the people to govern themselves without the need for elected (and corruptible) representatives, a system where the better your understanding of a topic, the bigger say you have in it.
The democracy we are familiar with today is 'Representative Democracy', a specific form of democracy and an evolution of the Magna Consilium formed under William The Conqueror after his invasion of England in 1066. That system was never designed to consider what each and every individual brings to the table, it was designed to suppress it. All it gives you is chance to put an X next to red or blue once every four or five years and pays no attention to your education, your expertise or your experience as an individual. That's the same system your great, great, great, great grandparents would have known.
This is the 21st century, so can't we do any better? You bet we can! Watch this space.
Plato was an elitist oligarch loving fascist. He argued for for exactly the the sort of tyrannical rule by the educated technocrat elite that we have today (no wonder Leo Strauss and his disciples were and are such fans). The edumacated masses were... well, edumacated, instead of educated.
The number of people at Zerohedge who argue that the OPPRESSION OF THE 99% by a tyrannical 1% is somehow morally superior and desireable to the oppression of only 49% by a tyrannical 51% is mind boggling.
I guess the Cliff Notes edumacation version skipped over all those parts about serving self interest versus serving the common interest.
Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke, Paul Krugman ... all are textbook examples of Philosopher Kings.
Yes, a functioning democracy (or more specificall a politeia requires an educated and moral citizenry, but without that the polis will collapse. Whereas, with an educated and immoral elite, a polis (more often translated as a republic) can mantain the status quo almost indefinitely.
Follow the money! Every war is a bankers war.
" We want moar! "
The bankers built the EU and they built it for the bankers.
Broadening your focus a bit, other multinationals also like the larger blocs. The bankers are at the head of the list, but corporations in general love large political entities, because it's simpler to manipulate one political system than several. Humans are allowing individual creativity to be stamped out and replaced by corporate slavery. This is a global problem.
This is not a precedent and shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
Remember Jörg Heider? Well, when he was elected Austrian Chancellor, EU treaties towards Austria were "temporarily suspended", that is until EU got the Austrian Govt. that they wanted. Then there's the more recent event of EU's staged coup d'etat in Italy in order to remove Berlusconi from office. And just a few months ago the EU technocrats had the audacity to demand (and get) the removal of Varoufakis from the Greek negotiating team...
"There can be no democratic choice against the European treaties."
Hugs,
JC Junker
No, every war is a magician war.
Banks are a part of the slave class.
Well.........at least Goldman has some damn fine sheets.
I know it has been said before but: Fuck the EU! Undemocratic bastards.
Sorry, make that anti-democratic bastards.
It really is quite amusing to see the right act like the communists did in decades gone past. So much for ideology. There is no ideology. It is simply about clinging to power and damn the plebs.
What right. Most of EU bodies are full of former communists and Marxists. Take Barozzo former EU commissioner , he was a garden variety Maoist who turned to the center right. Merkel, was head of the communist youth. It is all the same anywhere you look. There is no right wing in Europe anymore.
There is no right wing in Europe? The political establishment of Europe is predominantly right wing. Maybe not as blatantly fascist as in US, but still in the pockets of the capitalist class (=right wing). Like US, Europe is an economic system by and for the ownership-class (the capitalist class that have evolved into a de facto neo-feudal class of rentiers).
I know it’s futile, but since language is the most important tool we have to challenge the dominant narrative of the corporate propaganda machine, I’ll keep (and attempt) to demand definitions of the terms used:
Capitalism: an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production (since about everything in EU/US is privately owned – including by all relevant measures the state itself – we live in a capitalist world).
Socialism: an economic system based on the public and/or social/common ownership of the means of production.
The size, role and authoritative (or not) character of the state is not defining of what economic system that state is serving. You can – in a capitalist economy – have high taxes, substantial redistribution, social rights (like the Scandinavian countries) etc. etc. A huge state – like the war-state of US – can easily be capitalist.
Yes, you can argue for a different form of capitalism (based on some mythical concept of ‘free markets’ and/or less government) but that does not change the current system into something not capitalist. Monopoly capitalism, state capitalism, fascism and free market capitalism or all versions of capitalism.
a different way to say that is that the conservatives in Europe more often then not form the largest party in parliament
a fact that can be highlighted by the very elections in Portugal that we are discussing here: the party (Portugal_Ahead) that received most votes is conservative, "christian democrat" (and has a classic liberal wing), and received 107 seats out of 230
a small detail that completely escapes most readers and viewers of the US and UK media landscape. ask why?
I find myself amused that anyone can still hold onto the notion that democracy, a divisionary tool, is the unifing key to unshackling ourselves from the chains of servititude and domestication. For thousands of years, the dominance of thef Deep State elitists have controlled the lives of people born naturally to this world, using their productivity as a resource. We have been trained (not educated) to place our faith and hope into the hands of tyrants ( our representatives, as well meaning as they pupport to be), whose well established ploy of farming the masses for their own ends is abundantly and clearly recorded, and as this example proves yet again.
De-mock-racy. Bury it. Let's get back to limited local government. I'm sick of being trampled on by conniving back room swindlers who my vote doesn't affect, aren't you?
"The Left wing and Right wing both belong to the same vulture"
http://realizethelies.com/2012/07/12/left-wing-right-wing-both-belong-to...
We need a system wherein legislators are not allowed to personally profit. That is not profit any more than the poorest section of society.
Russia has made a start by prohibiting Duma members from holding foreign assets.
In Belgium, there's a Cordon Sanitaire against political parties who are against Europe.
A cordon sanitaire mains they get no media coverage unless it's negative, they can't join debates and they are not allowed to use governement communication services. Which is about 90%.
It worked to destroy those parties, as people saw only the negative things.
Did that freak from Mons/Bergen, DiRupo, have anything to do with it?
wow SD, I'm glad nothing like that happened to Occupy Wall Sstreet here in amerika.....btw, whatever happened to that bunch of dirty stinking hippies with their confused political platform?
The National Socialist Bankster Police State broke it over their knee just like in the WWF.
You can bet the Occupy Wall Street crowd is still living in tents, holding drum circles, doing face painting, smoking marijuana, and having indiscriminate sex. Those filthy "anti-establishment" types never change.
Whatever happened to the zany "Tea Party" misfits with their frock coats, three-cornered hats, and hand bells that used to read proclamations from scrolls on street corners? They were a hoot too.
The nightly news isn't as entertaining without coverage of the OWS and TEA loony-toons. They were fun. Now all we get is updates on the latest mass shooting rampage by some gun nut with one of those horrid assault weapons.
EDIT: Hmm - down votes. I guess I need to add the "/sarc" tag. I shouldn't have to do that; it's pretty obvious sarcasm.
Mr itstippy, it's because concerned citizens are demanding answers to the gun violence. Do you think these crazy people are just popping out of the woodwork at random?
No, more than likely it is a positive feedback loop where the focus of attention creates its own reality. The circus in Syria isn't enough to pull anyone's attention away from our own brand of domestic random 'lone-wolf' violence and so a black hole media spectacle devours its viewers, capturing their emotional energy amid a self-congratulatory public attention flurry surrounding the question of gun ownership.
Hillary is gaining in the polls because of it at the expense of Bernie because he represents the people of Vermont, the single laissez-faire gun rights state in the eastern U.S. An anomaly for which he is suffering at the polls. He has trouble defending his record because of it. I'm not confident of his chances. Nobody cares about Benghazi.
Mr Big: "Dammit, professor, we need moar MKULTRA operatives."
Prof: "It takes time, sir. They must be programmed. Programmed to acquire, to strike, and to commit suicide before capture."
"Well, we'll just stage things."
"Like Sandy Hook? My methods are sound, Mr Big."
"America must be disarmed! Disarmed, I tell you."
"Calm down and let me get back to my programming. A new batch of drugs and recruits came in today. They are still unconcious, but I'll be busy soon enough."
That's because people in Belgium still have it easy and don't pay attention. Wait until austerity begins to bite and we will see if anyone gives a fuck about what the media has to say.
No wonder NATO was so keen to spread democracy in Libya - Europe has the most freedoms as long as they follow American orders. Goldman would be so perturbed with a leftist government in Portugal. And that matters so mcuh more than what the citizens of Portugal want.
Perhaps, they need a new Operation Gladio to keep leftists out of Europe
Operation Gladio first came to light in Italy in 1990, after over 40 years of clandestine operations. Members of the project revealed that similar projects existed in most if not all countries of Western Europe.[1] These stay-behind networks were, in essence, super secret armies in at least 14 European countries, which were kept secret from the official governmental structures of the host countries – being controlled by other forces such as the CIA and MI6. They remained mostly dormant but were also involved in anti-communist activities including anti-democratic agitation and false flag terrorism.
Wikispooks
Gladio B- "the west" vs "islam"- is already well underway at this point. Gladio A- "the west" vs socialism/communism- never really ended. Don't mistake any "disclosures" for any kind of end to that program- any exposed compartments (as in Italy) simply dissolved away from it's compartmentalized structure! The body remained intact, and remains intact today.
oh, I don't think they were "secret."
Funny story, I heard this second hand so hear-say, but still! Girlfrend in banking told me she followed her college boyfriend back to southern Italy after graduation. He had been at CalPoly studying citrus ag because his family were big landowners. She worked at an American bank in a southern city. Elections came around and there were formal dinners with gifts worth many hundres of dollars at every plate from the local political boss, funds curtesy of the US embassy. Christian Dems were voted in every time after a threat from the *Left*, but remember the Commies had to be kept around to keep the funds flowing. Remember, the Italians did this *almost every year.* Governments fell like clockwork. They tried to hang on for two years and day because then they got a pension for LIFE. Berlin Wall came down and the Commies were no longer a credible threat. Funds stopped flowing from Uncle Sam. Election schedule now became a threat to political control. Economic slowdown and sadness ensued in the Mezzogiorno.
You just can't make this shit up.
No need to reinvent the wheel. This is by design. The first task of incorporated money is to buy government. The second task is to hide their purchase from the lumpen masses. The third task is to convince the lumpen masses that your vote has an impact on the political process.
Fascism is the dominance of corporations over the political process. Liberty is not even a consideration listed on their prospectus.
They hung Mussolini over the same issues. They only took one head of the Hydra then, the other heads surviving, successfully hidden through the success of the "second task" of incorporated money.
Antonio Barroso? OMG, I hope he's not the brother of that other Barroso ex-EU Commission President.
Obviously where Cavaco Silva went wrong is in not asking the Portuguese people to vote again until they get it right. That's what the Irish gov did with the Lisbon Treaty.
Europe on the way towards Pinochet style "democracy"...
Democracy banned in the EU's Portugal to prevent an elected leftist majority from taking office:
"He deemed it too risky to let the Left Bloc or the Communists come close to power, insisting that conservatives should soldier on as a minority in order to satisfy Brussels and APPEASE FOREIGN FINANCIAL MARKETS.
"DEMOCRACY MUST TAKE 2ND PLACE TO THE HIGHER IMPERATIVE OF EURO RULES AND MEMBERSHIP."
“In 40 years of democracy, no government in Portugal has ever depended on the support of anti-European forces, that is to say forces that campaigned to abrogate the Lisbon Treaty, the Fiscal Compact, the Growth and Stability Pact, as well as to dismantle monetary union and take Portugal out of the euro, in addition to wanting the dissolution of NATO,” said Mr Cavaco Silva.
"After we carried out an onerous programme of financial assistance, entailing heavy sacrifices, it is my duty, within my constitutional powers, to do everything possible to prevent false signals being sent to financial institutions, investors and markets,” he said. and those bastards have the arrogance to criticize China or Russia on democratic value
Pinochet beat the shit out of the alternative.
.
And.......Poof: Done with Democracy. Dictators rules. (Again) !!
Long live the tyrants.
All hail Ceaserianism.
More appropriately, All Hail the Imperium.
A political crisis like this is not a constitutional crisis, in fact it's all as the constitution of a parliamentary republic like most in Europe dictates
the president has the right to try various admins, parliament has the right to withold it's confidence
and so the Italian Monti was proposed by the president and finally accepted by the parliament, as parallel case to this
in some Scandinavian countries, even minority governments are commonplace. not quite the same, but related
Not sure I can agree with that.
In such situations it is usual for the president to firstly ask the party with the highest votes to form a government. That would be Costa and his allies. If they cannot, then he asks the next in line etc.
Cavaco Silva did not do that for political reasons. tch tch.
That’ exactly what happened, smacker. Silva didn’t want to follow what the people voted. He wanted to follow what his banker masters wanted him to do.
Specifically his masters in Brussels and Frankfurt.
smacker, aren't you reverting to the British way of doing things, here? where "in such situations it's usual..." has a very important place because there is no written constitution?
and btw that's why a political crisis is at the same time a constitutional crisis, in the UK... but not in Portugal or the twenty-odd countries that have a similar constitution
parliament has the right to override all this... if they find a majority to do that. nope, this process is going on as designed in their constitution, and is misunderstood - on purpose or by misunderstanding - as usual
The very fact that the Portuguese president asked the minority party to form a government, not the majority, is evidence that he subverted democracy in his country. THAT parliament can override his decision does not change the undeniable.
And I'm not sure what constitution you refer to in 20 odd countries in Europe. Are you referring to the Lisbon Treaty?
smacker, there is no such thing as a "minority party" in Portugal, according to their constitution that is written and is fairly standard among some 20+ countries on the continent
the specifics of this election and this parliament are this: one party got 107 seats, another 86, another 19, another 17 and another 1
a majority would be 116 votes out of a total of 230
the Portuguese President asked the leader of the one party that won 107 seats to form a government, to be approved or not by the Portuguese Parliament
further, "The President of Portugal has the power to dissolve the Assembly of the Republic by his own will. Unlike other countries the President can refuse to dissolve the parliament at the request of the Prime Minister or the Assembly of the Republic and all the parties represented in Parliament. If the Prime Minister resigns, the President must nominate a new Prime Minister after listening to all the parties represented in Parliament and then the nominee must be confirmed by the Assembly of the Republic. "
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_legislative_election,_2015
Behind the legal facade; causality.
Democracies are flexible systems, that is their strength when people who run them try for ethical compromise but that is their fatal weakness when pressure groups impose their will behind the curtain.
Inverted totalitarianism is when Mussolini's order of State and Private Corporate cronyism gets reversed and the Corporates run the show !
People are never part of that loop as a totalitarian construct is only top down.
We are in "managed" democracy.
When shit hits the fans democracies elect Hitler and co-opt Petain to power. Are we in such a situation in Greece and Portugal ?
This refugee crisis will try Eurozone to its utmost. They are caught in their own contradictions and Mutti is weakened where Draghi and the banks now have the upper hand.
Time will tell. Tsipras looks like he is already captured; hook, line and sinker.
Representative democracy does not work - can be manipulated by propaganda, disinformation, gangster politicians
only solution is direct democracy like in Switzerland - has the advantage of not being easily corrupted by a few
as the US goes in with its NGO's advance teams to set up media control and message with bought and controllled politicians, they set the agenda and rules for elections
portugal shows the desparation - they want this austerity to last another 20 years - so people die by at least 50% of the respective populations - Murder by Neglect is the Policy
Destabilizing cause and effect is now in full force.
Giving away moar free stuff attracts the rest of the world to cross your borders.
Happened during fall of Rome too, happening now, and in US also.
How much longer until the economies collapse ?
As Greece and Portugal vote in more left wing freebee governments, then the outsiders will just walk in and take their free stuff.
How can that lead to stability as the EM collapses ?
Panic at the borders.
This situation is reminiscient of Australian PM Gough Whitlam in '74- only sort of in reverse. We may well yet witness something similar if the left parties manage to reject the conservative appointee and elect their own leader.
Stay Tuned! (I will be).
Indeed. This article gives way too much drama to what is essentially how democracies in Europe usually work. It was a close election, so the president appoints a PM from his own side. He hopes this government will stay in place, but knows a vote of no confidence in the parliament means a new government.
This has nothing to do with usurping democracy or banning a particular government. This is simply how democracy works in Europe.
It's hard to believe you'd defend this clear abrogation of democracy Ghordius, but then again, I shouldn't be surprised.
Normalcy bias, in your case to the ideals of a democratic and united Europe as represented must be so hard to let go of eh?
When the reality of the EUSSR is now staring everyone squarely in the face.
This "Democracy' of which you proclaim; what is it that make you beat your chest so, over such a failed philosophy. There is an alternative and America tried it, once.
Democracy is a cloak of deceit, firmly held over the body and remains of the Constitutional (laws based) Republic of America.
and what has the "EUSSR" to do in all this purely Portuguese internal matter? but again, where is a "clear abrogation of democracy" if all is running so far as the Portuguese constitution prescribes?
Hmmm. Figure the civil war inside Portugal will go hot within four to six weeks. I wonder if they'll honor a cease-fire on Christmas Eve/Day?
Sure. Just like the one that happened in Greece this year.
interesting times.
The collapse of the nightmare that is the EU just got nudged a bit closer.
Greece was stuffed by the bastards, Portugal on course to take another shot, Spain can't be far behind.
I wish they'd gat a move on.
Hysteria. If anyone believed for a minute the Socialist/Communist coalition-to-be would change anything of substance, Portuguese bond yields would be spiking and lines would be forming at Lisbon ATMs. They are not.
Like Syriza, Costa's Socialists want the benefits of being Frankfurt's men in Lisbon. Change? Wake me when the Russian paratroopers show up.
It's fun watching the control freaks come out of the closet and get exposed for all to see. Failure of EU soon to follow.
There are incredible similarities between a legislative landslide this week for Paul Ryan and the denial in Portugal of the people’s representation.
In both cases, the bankers have denied the voice of the people.
It’s a sad day when it takes the Communists to take on the bankers.
This is just one more benchmark in the road to collapse of the European Union. The bankers have chosen tyranny and the people will choose breakup.
With the base of the Republican Party screaming No! to Paul Ryan, the bankers just calmly sit back and pull the strings. If Ryan were on the campaign trail for presidential nomination, his numbers would be just to the south of Christie.
It won’t last - either in the EU or the US.
"It’s a sad day when it takes the Communists to take on the bankers."
When have the bankers been taken on by anybody else than the communists?
Let me put this differently: why do you think the USA is so scared of communism?
The bankers are "scared of communism"? It is free enterprise capitalists who historically have opposed central planning and a tyranny over the financial system, be it by a central bank or a Planning Board of Socialist Production.
My question to you, Have you ever wondered why some of the wealthiest people in the world, such as George Soros and Jacob Schiff and the Rothschilds, have been financing socialism and many other forms of violence and revolution?
It is because their seizure of power results from Communist agitation and Socialist legislation.
Dr. Carroll Quigley, a professor of history at the Foreign Service School of Georgetown, spilled the beans in his book, “Tragedy and Hope.” It tells the facts about a secret worldwide plot by the super-rich to convert all governments, including that of the United States, to world socialism which they, the international bankers and business cartels, would control.
Quigley considered them to be the “hope” of the world; all who resist them represent “tragedy.
Another reason for the Warburgs and Schiffs to finance Lenin and the Bolsheviks was their tribal animosity towards the Czar and Orthodox Christianity.
It's right there in Antony Sutton's books as well.
I came to the conclusion years ago that anyone who still thinks socialism and communism represent the interests of the ordinary people is a gullible idiot. From the very outset socialism and its offshoot communism have been supported in every possible way by Jewish finance on Wall Street and in the City of London.
''When have the bankers been taken on by anybody else than the communists? "
Lincoln, Garfield, Andrew Jackson, Kennedy...
Eash issued debt-free script/greenbacks/US Treasury Notes or closed the Central Bank of the day.
-Three of the four were assasinated while in office and Jackson suffered from carrying unremovable lead shot until the day he died...
After the Kennedy assasination ALL the debt-free US Notes issued under EO 11110 were qickly removed from circulation.
The Tsar wouldn't let them set up a central bank in Russia - cue banking mafia funding the Bolshevik revolution - so in that case the communists were working for the bankers.
Tspiras did Greece a favor, had they defaulted no one would lend them any money and the Greeks would have to live within their means, which is unthinkable.
The Pres of Portugal is doing the same favor for his country.
In the end, it's all entirely bollocks. What on earth Germany is doing letting Draghi increase QE is utterly mystifying unless they plan to exit the whole euro charade using it as legal cover.
Germany is not sovereign.
Greece is not settled.
The only guarantee is the Greek situation will not be settled by normal legal means.
Greece, PR, and others are going wild and won't normalize.
The fan is spinning faster and the house of cards set higher.
This "no one would lend them money" argument would make sense if they actually lent actual money.
They don't.
They *invent* money out of thin air so they don't actually lose anything - they just gain less than they expected.
I wasn't taught this work in school... Is it English?
quote, "and dressing it up with remarkable Chutzpah as a defence of democracy."
I suspect that you are being sarcastic but in case you are not the word Chutzpah is Yiddish (Jewish) slang for audacity.
The curtain surely has been torn down now, to reveal the brick wall. They don't even try and hide it any more. Normally I would say they have run of time. But after 7 years of this fantasy, it doesn't look like anyone is coming or doing anything to rise up against it. So slow moving time, in this clusterfuck, seems to be all we have. Which leads you to. They just no longer give a fuck or fear anything. They win. We lose. Pass me the steak. And make me someone famous.
"They [our globalist/NWO overlords] just no longer give a fuck or fear anything. "
That terrible realization has dawned on me as well. The complete abandonment of border controls seems to confirm that they see victory in sight. On the other hand they could sense the Spirit of Odin rising and they'd better go all out while they still can.
"They don't even try and hide it any more."
The news is on the internet but not mentioned on the TV. They know they're safe as long as most people trust the TV and don't double check.
They are banning anti-EU parties. This is not good.
Ban them in all EU nations, they only have to be linked up through an EU wide revolt.
Now that would be ugly.
Not necessarily. It could result in the people finally reaizing that they don't have democracy.
Sounds like a good refugee encampment to me.
Soon they will be meeting in Brussels to rename Europe FUBAR...
lol.
Well they better send a telegram quickly to Poland as it looks like the Eurosceptics have just won that election too.
No one wants to be in yer club anymore. so now what are you going to say you have to stay?
And even if it was'nt a shitty deal and a bankers fraud there are about 2-10 million dark skinned reasons why you would want to get the hell out and now would be just about your last chance to exit intact while you still have a country.
And from what I read, in Poland the nationalist party won with enough percentage to form their own government, so no need for coalitions.
Also the president was recently elected and he is anti-EU.
This could be the first major crack to the EU.
Hungary really reserve the credit for securing their borders but they are still pretty pro-EU at the present.
Bloody 'ell, it IS a brick wall!
Don't care ...
As night follows day each action, twist and turn slowly brings the kettle to the boil.
I want to see who is going to crack first the left or right.
Don't blink though, they are both run from the shadows by the banksters so it is a win - win scenario.
. . . . conservatives should soldier on as a minority in order to satisfy Brussels and appease foreign financial markets.
Democracy must take second place to the higher imperative of euro rules and membership . . .
How much more in-your-face fascist can they get over there in Europe??
Well, a lot – just look at US.
Dies sind die Tage meinen Freunde. Genießen Sie.
I prefer Van Morrison's version.
Yeah, I like that. Never heard it before. Danke.
Have [capital controls] even been fully lifted in Portugal? It seems that each one of these debacles is just a template, {eg; Greece} for the next sovereign "shake down" by unelected representatives of the lien holders.
I thought the idea of a common currency, and bond exchangeabilty for asset transfers was all part the "pa·ri pas·su", { Grand Scheme} of Western Europe?
Apparently some individuals and entities, are MOAR equal then others?
Portugal’s public debt “skyrockets” under troika
So much for that PUBLIC austerity. Maybe Draghi can't publicly disclose he's using some other conduit to buy bankrupt Portuguese/Greek paper.
I'm being hypothetical of course. ;-)
" I thought the idea of a common currency, and bond exchangeabilty for asset transfers was all part the "pa·ri pas·su", { Grand Scheme} of Western Europe? "
EURO Monetary Base is up 17% YOY.
Bond issuance is completely out of control.
Draghi is probably already balls deep in VW and Valeant, etc.: the digits are worthless just sitting in the vacuum tubes..
..& the Portuguese Fascists are concerned that the Commies might attampt a 'Keynesian reflation'!
Get the popcorn. I can't wait to see how this unfolds :)
We can but hope that Costa and friends stand up to the beast and don't back down. In all fairness Tsipras was signalling a climbdown before he was ever elected.
Whole lot of nothing.
Like Syriza in Greece, these "men of the people" will fold like cheap suit at the first offer of more debt from the Troika. After all, they onlyhave to swing 0.7% to the other side.
So write down that you heard it here first: This will come to nothing.
Retard fight! The stakes are so high, and everyone is a drooling idiot. Team lefty wants to give away everything to illegal aliens. Team righty wants to give everything away to the bankers. Delicious, and coming to a country near you. I place my bet on Hitler 2 taking it all in the 9th inning.
In other words, Europe just went back to serfdom...
TBTF banks are effectively serfdom.
Merkel and Schroeder will shshshsshit on you.
What mindless drivel from the typical socialist media world. There hasn't been a true unsocialistic (Owning or Controlling the means of production) government in Europe since before WWII, if ever. Right-Left in EuroArabia is even more inane and insipid than in the US.
Until a so called "conservative" or "right wing" gov't starts to 'Pinochet' those very deserving socialist bastards, I'll just roll my eyes.
The only good Socialist is a rendered for BTU content Socialist ;)
Well, Italy and Greece have both had appointed GS Overlords.
Kinda American-centric wouldn't you say or haven't you enough knowledge to name a European 'bank?' Which btw there are some that are far larger than GS, and do actually have a worldwide presence.
Time to call in the CIA mercenaries and if you are near any chemical factories; stay clear.
Socialists = Jews
Communists, left bloc = muslims
See a pattern yet eurotards?
Good cop bad cop
Yes, I see a pattern. History is repeating. And you (my American friend) are, this time, playing the role as the Germans. You’re the NAZI’s. The totalitarian police state is already in place, the ideological war is won (there’re a very little minority in US with the intellectual capacity to navigate in the massive corporate propaganda and misinformation that dominates the US ‘public’ debate – should be called ‘private’ since the absolute majority of ‘contributions to the debate’ is privately sponsored/paid for) and the serfs clamor for more repression (security). The concentration camps are ready (FEMA-camps) and you’re being programmed to allow your fellow citizens to be murdered in them (as ‘the useless eaters’ they are, right?).
The same old division-strategies are being used: blame the Jews, the Muslims, the socialists, the communists, the unions, the gays etc. etc. Never the bankers, the financial overlords, the capitalists, the neo-feudal class, the oligarchs etc. Look down – don’t look up. The problem is the poor/the serfs/the slaves and not the owners/the rich/the overlords!
The anti-intellectualism in US is also symptomatic of the dominant NAZI-paradigm. Don’t read books, education is bad (and yes, it is bad – if you’re being ‘educated’ in US since ‘the education system of US have become just another extension of corporate propaganda) and mistrust people who can formulate full sentences.
All fucking bullshit. They elected "commies" in Greece and they rolled on their backs for the bankers quicker then a three-dollar whore. These Portugues "commies" guys are pissed they are not getting their share of payola, that's it.
Tsipras was advised by the Americans during the bailout negotiations. Perhaps they gave him an offer he could not reject...
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2015/09/27/washington-closely-advised-g...
If they stop leftwing anti-EU parties from taking office they will stop rightwing ones too.
"Antonio Costa announced earlier in the week that he’s prepared to align with the Communists and with Left Bloc to form a government in defiance of the Right-wing coalition."
Because Communists have always been associated w/ the freedom of the downtrodden...well according to Communists, and their filthy sympathizers. Make em 'disappear.' Long live Augusto Pinochet!
Portugal needs more financial rectitude...bend over...
didnt see anything about that on the big eu tv news...
germany silences now bloggers with new law (wrapped in the new law about datastoring)
the war on information and against the liberties of the people is full on, like a cancer distroying its host.
So thx for this article.
TTiP will pass like a charm, no matter if a million people go into the streets.
or will the local politics and interests win? i wish i had an algorithm for all these questions.
but probably the oligarchs will be too greedy and f*** it up for everybody including themselves.
what if million people go to the streets and passes,
Then the same million people go to the streets again and this time they walk down the street and pull the politicians out of their offices and hung them in the streets.
Maybe the replacement politicians will rescind the vote.
Don’t be surprised if fascism makes a strong comeback in Europe. Fascism is a very effective approach for channeling state resources (primarily military) to maintain wealth distribution and class structure, and was used in Germany, Italy, Spain (not clear if fascism ever left) and Portugal for that purpose. Not surprisingly, fascism tends to have strong support from the financial elite (who want to maintain/protect their wealth and social position). Indeed, it appears that current Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva along with former PM Pedro Passos Coelho are following in the footsteps of former Portuguese PM Salazar (1932- 1968). Time will tell.
Perfect setup for having the EM collapse and everyone moves to EU.
Free stuff attracts the world.
Exciting watching the EM plan their exit strategy to the EU.
Massive movements across multiple EU borders.
Similar to fall of Rome.
Bigger game is afoot.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable."
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy
And the bogus false alternative continues unquestioned. Either fascism or socialism, therefore tyranny or tyranny. What a choice... NOT.
Events like these illustrate conclusively that...
Humans are finished.
As long as humans fight over which form of tyranny and slavery they prefer, the good life (and good economy) is impossible.
And so the spiral down the tubes continues... everywhere.
It's a cycle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyklos
Most people in the west had some form of republic and it was relatively good for a while but we let oligarchs snatch it away and now who knows what comes next.
Part of the problem few recognize is, democracy is just another form of authoritarianism, tyranny, slavery. As is the "republic" twist on democracy.
Human predators have the human population trapped in an endless loop. When the masses get tired of one form of slavery/tyranny/authoritarianism, they just cycle to another form.
Because 99.999% of the population gets intellectually trapped by brainwashing from birth until death, only a few humans recognize and identify this scam.
What's most disheartening is to observe what happens when one of us who has recognized and understood what is happening explains the scam to others who haven't. No matter how clearly and thoroughly the scam is identified and explained, the vast majority simply cannot recognize and understand what is simple and obvious once identified.
Apparently endless repetition creates such a strong bias in their minds, they can't throw it off... even when they recognize (at that moment) what we say is clearly true. Perhaps they glimpse how utterly and totally this one change in understanding impacts so much more of their important mental content, and simply cannot bear the thought of discarding that and searching for valid comprehension.
Whatever is the nature of this mental barrier, the predators know it well, and take full advantage of it. Which is why I keep saying the obvious... humans are finished. At least, the vast majority who don't escape planet earth.
The problem with the European Union is that the original plan for Europe, devised by the great Catholics Schuman, Adenauer and de Gaspari, has been hijacked by Judaeo-Anglo-America in order to keep Europe split down the middle. Don't forget these are the same forces who plunged Europe into a devastating war in the 40s just to keep Russia and Germany down. They are doing the very same now, by creating potentially explosive chaos right in Europe's heartland. If there is even the remotest hint that Germany, France, Italy and Russia will come together to create an unrivalled pan-European economic, political and military union these forces will not hesitate to plunge Europe into another war to prevent it. They have completely infiltrated the project for further European integration in order to sabotage it, and that is why Europe today is weak and ineffective. But the day will come when strong Europeans rise again and drive European integration forward, something that will utterly destroy Judaeo-Anglo-America's designs on Mackinder's Heartland.
Please don't make the mistake of dismissing European integration as a bad thing. When you come up against the power of Judaeo-Anglo-America you need to unite or you will perish.
Nice to blame outside forces but it is European politicians that are doing this.
If there is a war it will be due to backlash against these forces of international authoritarianism.
You could be right, but to whom do these "European" politicians owe their loyalty - Europe, or Grand Lodge in London?
Merkel, Junkers, Barroso - the EU elite - are stoking the migrant crisis.
The original plan was coudenhove-kalergi
http://www.westernspring.co.uk/the-coudenhove-kalergi-plan-the-genocide-...
"Don't forget these are the same forces who plunged Europe into a devastating war in the 40s just to keep Russia and Germany down."
WWII was mainly caused by the banking mafia trashing the economy like they do every 80 years or so.
"They are doing the very same now, by creating potentially explosive chaos right in Europe's heartland. "
The EU elites are creating the migrant chaos for the reason stated in the first link.
"Please don't make the mistake of dismissing European integration as a bad thing."
The purpose of the EU is to destroy Europeans - maybe hard to believe before the migrant crisis but it should be getting more obvious by the day.
The primary purpose of the EU is the genocide of white Europeans.
Another current hot spot is Montenegro with mass protests which are, as in Moldova, anti NATO and anti EU so MSMs are quiet
Montenegro? Who say dat?
Any protest going on in Montenegro will be against a totally corrupt government and public sector, nothing to do with Europe.
The general public are viewed as no more than ignorant and meddlesome outsiders, a bewildered herd. And it's the responsible men who have to make decisions and to protect society from the trampling and rage of the bewildered herd. Now since it's a democracy they - the herd, that is - are permitted occasionally to lend their weight to one or another member of the responsible class. That's called an election."
If it ain't no working then diferent aproach take place, up to Gladio, until right result is not achieved
Lisbon was famous for the Black Slave market a few hundred years ago. What goes around, comes around.
World War 3 coming !