AMOS VOGEL, A LEADING FIGURE OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENT, DED AT 91

http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?start=1335997240

The Hollywood Reporter article quotes Martin Scorsese: "If you’re looking for the origins of film culture in America, look no further than Amos Vogel. Amos opened the doors to every possibility in film viewing, film exhibiton, film curating and film appreciation. He was also unfailingly generous, encouraging and supportive of so many young filmmakers, including me when I was just starting to make my first pictures. No doubt about it — the man was a giant." In 1963, Vogel founded the New York Film Festival with Richard Roud.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/amos-vogel-death-new-york-film-festival-316532

Amos Vogel, creator of the influential Manhattan avant garde film club Cinema 16 and co-founder of the New York Film Festival, died Tuesday in his apartment off Washington Square Park. He was 91.

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With New York missing the serious film societies prevalent in his native Austria, Vogel and his wife Marcia in 1947 founded Cinema 16 for moviegoers thirsty for "films you cannot see elsewhere."

PHOTOS: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2012

During the next 16 years, Vogel opened the public's eyes to such filmmakers as Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner,Kenneth Anger, Brian De Palma,Georges Franju, Richard Lester, Nagisa Oshima,Roman Polanski, Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette,Carlos Saura, François Truffaut and Agnes Varda and to such films as John Cassavetes’ Shadows (1959). At its height, the nonprofit Cinema 16 boasted a membership of 6,000 and regularly sold out 1,500-seat screenings.

MOLON LAVE=COME AND GET IT BABY!

COMPOSER PINO DONAGGIO, LONG TIME BRIAN DE PALMA ASSOCIATE TO RECEIVE AWARD AT GHENT FESTIVAL

...One of my all time favorite composer's Pino Donnagio is receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Ghent film festival. He also composed CARRIE.

http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?start=1335997240

Variety reports that Pino Donaggio will receive the 12th Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's World Soundtrack Awards, an event which takes place on the closing night (October 20) of Belgium's Ghent Film Festival. The festival runs October 9-20. A selection of Donaggio's music will be performed at the event by the Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Dirk Brosse, accompanied by film clips. During the event, composerJames Newton Howard will also be honored with a concert in which he will conduct the Brussels Philharmonic along with Brosse. Donaggio is best known for the many scores he has composed for the films of Brian De Palma, beginning with Carrie in 1976, and continuing this year withPassion. 

A COMPANY OF WOLVES OVER ATHENS...

Cartoon by YANNIS IOANNOU
www.yannis-ioannou.com

XΡΥΣΗ...ΔΥΣΗ: To νεοναζιστικό κόμμα που καλεί σε κατάλυση του δημοκρατικού πολιτεύματος...

Cartoon YANNIS IOANNOU www.yannis-ioannou.com

Της ΣΩΤΗΣ ΤΡΙΑΝΤΑΦΥΛΛΟΥ

http://topontiki.gr/article/35332

Δεν θυμάμαι να έγραψα ή να συζήτησα ποτέ για τη Χρυσή Αυγή: είναι η πρώτη και, πιθανότατα, η τελευταία φορά. Η ζωή είναι σύντομη, δεν έχω ούτε χρόνο ούτε διάθεση να ασχολούμαι με ηλιθίους. Το 2004, όταν έκανα μια έρευνα για τις ακροδεξιές και νεοναζιστικές οργανώσεις στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες (Κου Κλουξ Κλαν, Posse Comitatus, Αργυροχίτωνες), βρισκόμουν σε διαρκή κατάσταση κλαυσίγελου: δεν επρόκειτο για άτομα φυσιολογικά ή, έστω, «οριακά»· επρόκειτο για τρελούς, και μάλιστα τρελούς για δέσιμο. Αλλά στις ΗΠΑ δεν προβλέπεται «δέσιμο» σε τέτοιες περιπτώσεις, πράγμα που υπονομεύει, νομίζω, την αμερικανική δημοκρατία. Θα θίξω λοιπόν δύο ζητήματα: πρώτον, ένα πολιτικό και θεσμικό – το ότι ο Άρειος Πάγος όφειλε να αρνηθεί το δικαίωμα της Χρυσής Αυγής να συμμετάσχει στις εκλογές· δεύτερον, ένα προσωπικό – το ότι όχι μόνο δεν τη «φοβάμαι», ως πολίτης, αλλά ότι τη βρίσκω γκροτέσκα και αξιοθρήνητη.

Σύμφωνα με τη νομοθεσία, απαγορεύεται να συμμετέχουν στις εκλογές κόμματα και άτομα που απειλούν ή προτρέπουν σε ποινικά εγκλήματα. Η Χρυσή Αυγή και απειλεί και προτρέπει σε ποινικά εγκλήματα: οι ιδέες της πρέπει να είναι ελεύθερες – όπως είναι όλες οι ιδέες, ακόμα και οι θεοπάλαβες (σατανιστικές, βρικολακίστικες, προφητικομεσσιανικές) –, οι πράξεις της όμως εμπίπτουν, απλούστατα, στον ποινικό κώδικα. Στην Ελλάδα πλανάται η παρεξήγηση ότι στη δημοκρατία κάνουμε ό,τι θέλουμε· γι’ αυτό το κοινωνικό μας οικοδόμημα είναι σαθρό, γι’ αυτό η πολιτική μας συμπεριφορά παραμένει νηπιώδης. Επιπροσθέτως, δεν σεβόμαστε το Κοινοβούλιο: απόδειξη η ποιότητα του πολιτικού μας προσωπικού· απόδειξη κι ότι το ανώτατο δικαστήριο της χώρας επιτρέπει την κατάληψη εδράνων από εγκληματίες.

Το ότι η Χρυσή Αυγή απέσπασε τόσες ψήφους δεν μας δίνει βαρυσήμαντες πληροφορίες πέρα από το αυτονόητο: η έλλειψη μεταναστευτικής πολιτικής δημιούργησε δυσαρέσκεια και ρατσιστικά αντανακλαστικά – δεν τεκμαίρεται ότι οι πολίτες έγιναν στρατευμένοι φασίστες. Έχουμε χαμηλό επίπεδο παιδείας, ο κάθε άνθρωπος βασανίζεται από τις έγνοιες του και δεν γνωρίζει σε βάθος τις κοινές υποθέσεις, οι οποίες είναι, εξάλλου, αρκετά περίπλοκες. Η δράση μας προκύπτει από τις πληροφορίες που έχουμε για τον κόσμο: «ο κόσμος, γιε μου, είναι μια γυάλα γεμάτη νερό», λέει ο μπαμπάς - ψάρι στο παιδί - ψάρι. Αν ο μικρόκοσμος των ψηφοφόρων εκπίπτει καθημερινά από την παρουσία εξαθλιωμένων που απειλεί τους εν εξαθλιώσει γηγενείς, ενισχύονται οι βάναυσες ιδεολογίες και οι μισανθρωπικές αντιδράσεις. Οι θεσμοί – όπως ο Άρειος Πάγος – υπάρχουν για να απομονώνουν τις ιδεολογίες και τα άτομα που οδηγούν σε παράνομους τρόπους συμπεριφοράς. Εξάλλου, ο δημόσιος λόγος, μια εξουσία ανάμεσα στις άλλες, πρέπει να έχει όρια: το πού θα βρούμε το κριτήριο που επιτρέπει να διακρίνουμε τους «καλούς» περιορισμούς από τους «κακούς» είναι ένα ανοιχτό ζήτημα, το οποίο ωστόσο μπορεί να οριστεί, σε μεγάλο βαθμό, μέσω της λογικής. Το να θέτουμε όρια στην ελευθερία έκφρασης δεν σημαίνει ότι ζητάμε την εγκαθίδρυση της λογοκρισίας· απλώς ζητάμε υπευθυνότητα εκ μέρους εκείνων που έχουν τη δύναμη να μεταδίδουν πληροφορίες και γνώμες. Η υπευθυνότητα αυξάνεται με τη δύναμη που διαθέτουν και που θα έπρεπε να προκαλεί ανάλογη επιφύλαξη. Κοντολογίς, η ελευθερία που έχει η κότα να πιάσει την αλεπού είναι μια αστειότητα εφόσον δεν έχει αυτή την ικανότητα. Η ελευθερία της αλεπούς είναι πιο επικίνδυνη εφόσον είναι η πιο δυνατή. Υπό αυτήν την έννοια τα μέσα ενημέρωσης δεν θα έπρεπε να δίνουν βήμα στη Χρυσή Αυγή η οποία, επαναλαμβάνω, έχει την ελευθερία της διάδοσης των ιδεών της, πλην όμως με δικά της μέσα. Πράγματι, τα ΜΜΕ απέφυγαν να δώσουν βήμα, αλλά, τελευταία, λίγο πριν από τις εκλογές, υπέκυψαν στις πιέσεις, δικαιολογώντας την αλλαγή στάσης με ωφελιμιστική λογική: αν οι ψηφοφόροι δουν τους τερατώδεις Χρυσαυγίτες δεν θα τους ψηφίσουν. Κατανοητή η ωφελιμιστική λογική· η ηθική όμως παραμένει ανώτερο μέγεθος και αξία: ό,τι δενπρέπει να γίνεται, δεν πρέπει να γίνεται. Η Χρυσή Αυγή δεν έχει θέση ούτε στα μέσα ενημέρωσης ούτε στους δημοκρατικούς θεσμούς.

Το δεύτερο ζήτημα, όπως προανέφερα, σχετίζεται με την απόκρισή μας στην ευκαιριακή ενίσχυση της Χρυσής Αυγής. Οι περισσότεροι ψηφοφόροι δεν ήξεραν περί τίνος επρόκειτο, ότι ψήφιζαν δηλαδή αυτό που λέγαμε επιεικώς κάποτε «ΚΔΟΑ» (κτηνώδης δύναμη, ογκώδης άγνοια) κι ότι η τιμωρητική τους ψήφος τοποθετούσε στη Βουλή μια συμμορία ψυχωσικών. Ψυχικές ασθένειες διαγιγνώσκονται εύκολα σε πολλούς πολιτικούς (εξουσιομανία, μυθομανία, ναρκισσισμός, κλεπτομανία, παράνοια, επιδειξιομανία), η Χρυσή Αυγή όμως δεν εντάσσεται σ’ αυτές τις κατηγορίες των νευρωτικών. Οι αρχηγοί της πάσχουν από σαφείς διανοητικές ανωμαλίες ψυχωσικού τύπου: απώλεια επαφής με την πραγματικότητα, τρέλα του μεγαλείου, μισανθρωπισμό, παραισθήσεις. Πολλοί από αυτούς εκδηλώνουν συμπτώματα σχιζοφρένειας: αυταπάτες, αποδιοργανωμένη σκέψη και ομιλία, παραλήρημα, αμβλύνοια, φτώχεια του λόγου (αλογία), ανηδονία, έλλειψη επιθυμίας να δημιουργήσουν σχέσεις με ανθρώπους (ακοινωνία). Πρόκειται για μια μεγάλη ποικιλία ασθενειών του κεντρικού νευρικού συστήματος, που οφείλονται είτε σε σοβαρά ψυχικά τραύματα είτε σε χαμηλή νοημοσύνη ή και στα δύο. Επειδή έχω αποφοιτήσει από τη Φαρμακευτική, μοιραία σκέφτομαι τη φαρμακευτική αγωγή που συνιστάται σε αυτές τις περιπτώσεις, συχνά με θετικά αποτελέσματα. Αλλά βεβαίως τον πρώτο λόγο έχουν οι ψυχίατροι, όχι οι φαρμακολόγοι.

Η Χρυσή Αυγή είναι μια καρικατούρα και η γενική της συνέλευση μου φέρνει στο μυαλό μαζώξεις της Μαφίας: ο Μπάμπης ο Χοντρός, ο Λάκης ο Φονιάς, ο Ρούλης ο Φρυδάτος, ο Στέλιος ο Φούρναρης (υπαρκτό πρόσωπο που αρέσκεται σε φούρνους μικρο-Εβραίων), ο Βρασίδας ο Μάγκας, ο Βάγγος ο Χασάπης – και πάει λέγοντας. Θέλω να πω: αυτοί οι άνθρωποι είναι επικίνδυνοι σε ατομικό επίπεδο – μιας και εκδηλώνουν προθέσεις κατά συρροήν δολοφόνου –, αλλά όχι σε κοινωνικό· δεν απειλούν το πολίτευμα και την κοινωνία μας. Παραείναι ανόητοι, παραείναι υστερικοί, παραείναι άρρωστοι και ταυτοχρόνως γελοίοι… Λιγοστοί πολίτες έλκονται από τέτοια βλακεία και ασχήμια, ακόμα κι αν δεν έχουν ιδέα από τα εγκλήματα του φασισμού και του ναζισμού. Εξάλλου, ας δείξουμε υπομονή: οι νέοι, όσοι, για παράδειγμα, ακούνε σήμερα Black Metal και φοράνε μπλουζάκια με σβάστικες, θα μεγαλώσουν και θα ξεχάσουν το Black Metal και τις σβάστικες – θα συνιστούσα ψυχραιμία σε γονείς και δασκάλους· τα «παιδιά» αναζητούν ψηλαφώντας τον δρόμο τους μέσα σ’ έναν λαβύρινθο. Όπως και οι μεγάλοι.

Θα συνιστούσα ψυχραιμία και στους ψηφοφόρους της Χρυσής Αυγής: όλοι κάνουμε λάθη· οι περισσότεροι από μας παρασύρονται σε κάποια στιγμή της ζωής τους από αιματηρά οράματα, από συνθήματα μίσους. Ωστόσο, όλα μπορούν να διορθωθούν: ακόμα και η αρρωστημένη ψυχοσύνθεση των μελών της Χρυσής Αυγής επιδέχεται θεραπεία – με υπομονή και χωρίς καμιά υποχώρηση. Χωρίς καμιά υποχώρηση. 

TO ΙΠΤΑΜΕΝΟ ΤΣΙΡΚΟ ΤΗΣ ΑΚΡΟΔΕΞΙΑΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ Νο 2

http://antistachef.wordpress.com/

AΠΟΦΑΣΗ ΠΡΩΤΟΔΙΚΕΙΟΥ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΚΑΤΑΠΟΛΕΜΗΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΠΕΙΡΑΤΕΙΑΣ

Για πρώτη φορά στην Ελλάδα διατάχθηκε η λήψη τεχνολογικών μέτρων παρεμπόδισης της πρόσβασης χρηστών σε ιστοσελίδες μέσω των οποίων διακινούνται παράνομα ψηφιακά έργα προστατευόμενα με δικαίωμα πνευματικής ιδιοκτησίας. 

Συγκεκριμένα, στις 16 Μαΐου 2012 δημοσιεύθηκε η απόφαση 4658/2012 του Μονομελούς Πρωτοδικείου Αθηνών, η οποία έκανε δεκτό αίτημα οργανισμών συλλογικής διαχείρισης δικαιωμάτων επί μουσικών και οπτικοακουστικών έργων να υποχρεωθούν εκτός άλλων οι ελληνικές εταιρίες παροχής υπηρεσιών σύνδεσης στο διαδίκτυο να λάβουν τεχνολογικά μέτρα προκειμένου να καταστεί αδύνατη η πρόσβαση των συνδρομητών τους σε διαδικτυακές τοποθεσίες μέσω των οποίων πραγματοποιείται παράνομη παρουσίαση και ανταλλαγή έργων. 

Η απόφαση εφαρμόζει ουσιαστικά για πρώτη το άρθρο 64 Α του ν. 2121/1993 που ενσωματώνει πρόβλεψη Οδηγίας της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης για τη δυνατότητα λήψης ασφαλιστικών μέτρων κατά των διαμεσολαβητών (παρόχων υπηρεσιών διαδικτύου), οι υπηρεσίες των οποίων χρησιμοποιούνται από τρίτο για την προσβολή του δικαιώματος του δημιουργού ή συγγενικού δικαιώματος. 

Παρόμοιες αποφάσεις έχουν ήδη εκδοθεί σε άλλα κράτη μέλη της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης και αποσκοπούν στην προστασία της πνευματικής ιδιοκτησίας στο διαδίκτυο χωρίς να θίγονται τα δικαιώματα των χρηστών.

Το πλήρες κείμενο της απόφασης μπορείτε να το βρείτε ΕΔΩ (απόφαση 4658/2012 Πρωτοδικείου Αθηνών).


http://www.skai.gr/news/technology/article/203457/apofasi-protodikeiou-athinon-gia-tin-adimetopisi-tis-diadiktuakis-peirateias/

GAP: SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH, POVERTY FOR THE MASSES..

http://antistachef.wordpress.com/

Aν η τηλεόραση είναι το όπιο του λαού το MEGAsou είναι η μεθαμφεταμίνη του....

http://antistachef.wordpress.com/

JP MORGAN CHASE ANALYST: IF GREECE EXTIS EURO 30% OF THE EUROZONE GDP WILL BE LOST

(...)Mackie said a Greek eurozone exit would see the country's gross domestic product shrink by as much as 25-30 percent.

In the streets of Athens, people expressed a mixture of apprehension over the future of the country and anger with politicians who let it come so far.

"For me, the political system needs to sit down and come to an understanding because they are killing our country, that is for sure," said Athens resident Georgia, who didn't give her last name. "If they don't do it, our country will be lost."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/18/fitch-downgrades-greek-banks_n_1527700.html?ref=topbar

___

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CRISIS IN GREECE...

Cartoon by YANNIS IOANNOU, www.yannis-ioannou.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120519/eu-greece-personal-crisis/

By DEREK GATOPOULOS

ATHENS, Greece — Like many Greeks left unemployed by their country's economic tailspin, Dimitris Spachos finds it easier to talk about his nation's problems than his own.

Enormous debt accumulated over decades sent the country into a recession so deep it kills 200 businesses and 900 jobs every day. Elections this month failed to produce a government, and Greeks will vote again in June. Meanwhile, life for most Greeks continues to get worse.

"Every day I see more people sleeping rough on the street," said Spachos, 72. "They can't even wash their clothes or themselves. ... It worries me."

Spachos, who has been staying with different friends in recent months, may soon join them. A former doctor, he could not afford to retire and found work as a hospital orderly. But as Greece's woes mounted so did his own, and he lost his job, then two more: one as a gardener and one as a groundskeeper.

Now, he is unemployed and homeless, and spoke this week at a municipal soup kitchen, where he ate a plastic bowl of bean soup, a thick slice of bread and a banana.

"I am ashamed to be here," Spachos said, his eyes filling with tears. "My heart is broken."

"Greeks have fight in them, so maybe things will improve in a couple of years," he said, opening his shirt to reveal a scar from surgery to implant a pacemaker. "But I won't be around to see it."

Here is a look at some of Greece's problems as it struggles to pay its debts:

UNEMPLOYMENT

Over the past three years unemployment has roughly doubled, and Greece has lost more than 10 percent of its output.

Nearly 320,000 people lost their jobs in the 12-month period ending in February, pushing the unemployment rate to 22 percent. Greece's 3.8 million employed people are supporting the 4.5 million who don't work – 1.1 million officially unemployed and 3.4 million considered financially inactive.

BUSINESS WOES

Some 80,000 businesses were shuttered last year, and 136,000 more are expected to fail in 2012, according to estimates from the Athens Chamber of Commerce.

"Out of 900,000 businesses currently operating, that would be a major blow," said Constantine Michalos, the chamber's president. "I fear the (next) government may be called upon to administer the ruins of the Greek economy."

CRIME

The Public Order Ministry has reported an increase in nearly all categories of crime between 2010 and 2011, with murder up 5 percent and armed robberies in occupied homes up 110 percent.

HOMELESSNESSS

Homelessness, the most visible sign of Greece's financial despair, has risen by around 25 percent, according to estimates by a state-funded relief agency. That number includes more people from traditionally stable background such as high school and university graduates.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

Greece's Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 954 new HIV infections in 2011, a 57 percent increase from the previous year. It attributes most of the rise to drug use.

DEPRESSION

All these problems have led to a general rise in depression. According to several state-funded health and relief agencies, rates of suicide, drug dependency and depression have all broadly risen by 20 to 25 percent since the financial crisis hit in late 2009.

BRIAN DE PALMA FUELS CANNES WITH PASSION...

http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/

According to the Facebook page for Brian De Palma's Passion, Wild Bunch plans to show a teaser for the film at its offices in Cannes during the film festival. The offices are located at 4 la Croisette. But the real exciting part of the new Facebook page is the set of six pictures posted yesterday, including the one above and the several below. These images are tantalizing, and anticipation for this film is only just ramping up...

An erotic thriller in the tradition of "Dressed To Kill" and "Basic Instinct", Brian De Palma's PASSION tells the story of a deadly power struggle between two women in the dog-eat-dog world of international business. Christine possesses the natural elegance and casual ease associated with one who has a healthy relationship with money and power. Innocent, lovely and easily exploited, her admiring protégé Isabelle is full of cutting-edge ideas that Christine has no qualms about stealing. They're on the same team, after all... Christine takes pleasure in exercising control over the younger woman, leading her one step at a time ever deeper into a game of seduction and manipulation, dominance and humiliation. But when Isabelle falls into bed with one of Christine's lovers, war breaks out. On the night of the murder, Isabelle is at the ballet, while Christine receives an invitation to seduction. From whom? Christine loves surprises. Naked she goes to meet the mystery lover waiting in her bedroom...

Such a tease...! So, aside from a naked Rachel McAdams, there is one more new piece of information to glean from the above: it looks like the movie theater of the original Alain Corneau film (Love Crime) has been changed to the ballet. Knowing of De Palma's love for Powell & Pressburger's The Red Shoes, and recalling Carlito's longing for Gayle in the beautifully heartbreaking ballet class scene in De Palma's Carlito's Way, this sounds intriguing, to say the least.
(Thanks to Mary!)

The above poster is being used to represent Brian De Palma's Passion for SBS Productions and Wild Bunch Distribution at the Film Market of the Cannes Film Festival, which opens on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the IMDB has added Rainer Bock to its Passion cast credits, where he is listed as "Inspector Bach." Bock, pictured here, is a veteran German actor of the stage, TV, and film. He has appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, and Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon. In 2008, Bock appeared in Caroline Link's A Year Ago In Winter, which featured Passion's Karoline Herfurth in a starring role.

Also of note is a post from Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere, who visited Studio Babelsberg on Friday, one week after the Passion crew likely cleared out of there. Wells' post includes a couple of interesting videos he took while being given a tour of the studio. In one video, the tour guide, Eike Wolf (Studio Babelsberg's head of corporate communication), shows Wells where parts of Cloud Atlas were recently filmed, and in another, they walk through a room full of props, including a copy of the British prime minister's book from Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer. 

ΤΟ ΑΠΙΣΤΕΥΤΟ ΟΠΟΥ ΦΥΣΑ Ο ΑΝΕΜΟΣ CV ΤΟΥ ΑΡΧΗΓΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΔΕΞΙΑΣ ΕΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΙ...

MATT TAIBI: ENOOUGH IS ENOUGH WITH AUSTERITY

It didn’t take long to crank up the backlash against European voters. This is inevitable whenever a socialist wins a major election, but particularly now, when new French president François Hollande rode to victory shouting, "Austerity can no longer be inevitable!"

This sounds like the beginning of what will be a very heated debate over who has to pay for the excesses of the financial crisis. It was previously assumed that everybody but the actual financial services sector would have to pay, but voters in Europe now are refusing to go along, sparking a wave of eye-rolling editorials in the financial press. Even David Brooks got into the act today, penning a lugubriouseditorial about the errant political instincts of the populist masses here and abroad.

Markets all over the world freaked out over the prospect of having ignorant European voters meddling in the recovery process the geniuses of the high finance world had already painstakingly laid out for them. The model for economic progress in the financial bubble era, after all, is supposed to go something like this:

1. Let banks inflate massive asset bubbles with the aid of cheap or even free government cash, and tons of leverage;
2. Before it all explodes, carve out gigantic sums for bonuses and compensation for the companies that inflated those bubbles;
3. After it explodes, get the various governments to bail those companies out;
4. Pay for it all by slashing services to what’s left of the middle class.

This is the model we used in America. We had a monster asset bubble based on phony mortgages, which Wall Street was allowed to inflate to spectacular dimensions with minimal reserve capital, huge amounts of leverage, and tons of fraud for good measure. When that bubble exploded, we first rescued the banks who inflated the thing in the first place, and then our plan for paying for it mostly revolved around folks like Paul Ryan and Chris Christie, who made great political hay by trying to take an ax to "entitlements" like health care and retirement benefits.

They're replaying the same script in Europe, sort of. The causes of crises in places like Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy vary somewhat and are less simple to define, but a common denominator in all of them is weak growth mixed with giant budget deficits.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/austerity-cant-be-a-one-way-street-20120508#ixzz1vKYAxlkv

PONTIAC GENOCIDE MEMORIAL DAY: 350.000 HUMAN BEINGS MASSACRED BY TURKISH FASCISTS...

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2011/05/18/celebrations-in-memory-of-the-pontian-genocide-on-19


Events in memory of the anniversary of the Genocide of the Pontiacs are planned for Thursday, May 19^th, by the Pontiac organizations and clubs. With concentrations in Thessaloniki and Athens, the Pan-Pontiac Federation of Greece (WTO) and the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Pontiac Societies (POPS) will honor on Thursday afternoon, May 19^th, the memory of victims of the Pontiac Greeks. The main meeting in Thessaloniki will be held at 7:30 p.m. at St. Sophia Square and will follow a parade which will head to the Turkish consulate. At 6:30 p.m., the local Pontiac clubs will be gathered in Syntagma, Athens. Speakers at the gathering of WTO in Thessaloniki will be Michael Charalambides and Greek-American politician Leonidas Raptakis and in Athens, the MP of the Swedish parliament, Nick Papadopoulos. Earlier in the afternoon there will be a bike ride on the “Run for Life, Run for the Memory”, inspired by the  Chortiatis in Thessaloniki which will end at the time of the gathering at Saint Sophia Square. The bike ride will be also held by the Pontiac clubs in Athens a day earlier, on May 18^th. This ride will start from the Acropolis and will end at the monument of the Unknown Soldier, where the Evzones of the Republican Guard will make the shift, dressed in the traditional costume of the Pontiac Greeks.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_genocide
Greek genocide also known as the Pontic genocide, was the systematic killing of the Greek population of the Ottoman Empire during World War I and its aftermath (1914–1923). It was instigated by the government of the Ottoman Empire against the Greek population of the Empire and it included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches, summary expulsions, arbitrary executions, and destruction of Christian Orthodox cultural, historical and religious monuments. According to various sources, several hundred thousand Ottoman Greeks died during this period.^[1] Other sources put the number at around 2 million. ^[2] [3]Some of the survivors and refugees, especially those in Eastern provinces, took refuge in the neighbouring Russian Empire. After the end of the 1919–22 Greco-Turkish War, most of the Greeks remaining in the Ottoman Empire were transferred to Greece under the terms of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Other ethnic groups were similarly attacked by the Ottoman Empire during this period, including Assyrians and Armenians, and some scholars consider those events to be part of the same policy of extermination.^[4][5][6]

GREEK NEONAZI PARTY VIOLATES CONSTITUTIONAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS...

http://www.antinazi.gr/english/frameup.htm

Democrats in Greece and  Europe,

 It is an unprecedented scandal for whole Europe and the world, inconceivable after the world war II, that a nazi party, namely “Chrysi Avgi” (Golden Dawn), enters the Greek parliament in the 2012 elections. It isn’t because the anti-Hitler and anti-nazi hatred of our people has faded away that we are today facing this hideous possibility. We are facing it because the political regime has for many years been unanimously PROTECTING AND BOOSTING THAT MURDEROUS GANG into the political life of the country, by hiding its hilterian character from the people and even worse, by relativizing the meaning and seriousness of that character. In particular, all parliamentary parties, that today seem to be “astonished” at the rise of “Chr. Avgi”, have been doing the following for years now:

They have never denounced “Chrysi Avgi” as a nazi murderous gang but let it pass for a legal and ordinary political party.

They allowed those overt and audacious nazis to participate in all electoral battles, and at that they’ ve been inviting them to sessions jointly with all parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties, in order to commonly define the television times available for each one.

The state and the whole political parliamentary spectrum has let them unaccountable for their violence against democratic citizens and especially against migrants for years.

They allow them dissolve events and destroy the offices of national minorities parties, and at that under the cover of the police.

They “pushed” them into getting elected to the Municipal council of Athens and watched its leader addressing the nazi salute inside the town hall with full “understanding”.

They let them formally participate to the schools parades on the October 28 national day.

The most important is that the whole political regime has imposed them as “protectors” of the population in a neighborhood of the center of Athens, at Agios Panteleimonas square. In that area, they’ ve been ceded the right to stab the migrants at will and to forbid the existence and propaganda of the other parties, that is the right to impose their own nazi, racist dictatorship from now on.

This so far partial and de facto enforcement of the nazi law in the country has also been to a degree imposed de jure. The Greek highest court, the Supreme Court (Areios Pagos), decided in 2010, having all parliamentary parties by its side, that the praise of nazism was legal and that the hitlerian calling for extermination of the Jews was also legal and at that justified, since he did it invoking the allegation that the Jews “conspire” so as to conquer the world hegemony. This was the rationale by which the arch-nazi K. Plevris was acquitted in 2010 from the charges concerning his book, a praise to Hitler and the SS, entitled “Jews the whole truth”.

This fascistization of the Greek political life and of justice, as well as their favoring for “Chr. Avgi” began much earlier than the economic crisis in Greece and has nothing to do with that. The economic crisis has simply facilitated the political regime to push “Chr. Avgi” into parliament right now. At that, the economic crisis couldn’t alone suffice to boost a hitlerian party in a country such as Greece, that has suffered untold torchures during the nazi occupation. Besides, there are other over-reactionary parties that have also strengthened during the crisis by turning against the old political world and thus canalizing the people’s rage. The political regime has given “Chr. Avgi” another provocative helping hand so that it could strengthen: they have widely opened up the borders of the country – they alone in the whole EU and at that during the crisis – to a huge mass of migrants (almost 120,000 per year), and settled them in the center of Athens by making them cherish the hope that they could reach Western Europe. They keep this hope alive through their all-European campaign to make the rich countries of the EU open up their borders to the immigrants from Greece. This huge mass of migrants is being “piled up” in the depressed center of Athens by the Greek state. In this way abruptly the life conditions in the centre have become not only insanitary but also inhumane for the migrants as well as for the local population, that views criminality raising and thus, under conditions of wide unemployment, feels estranged and expelled from their place. At this point the nazis of “Chr. Avgi” appear, with the consent of the police and all political parties, so as to enforce the “law and order”. That is they perpetrate selective pogroms against migrants by stabbing them or “persuading” them to move and showy “clean up” some spots of the town with symbolic significance from the migrants, who are being channeled into new locations. They also offer the shop-keepers protection and recently they’ve been accompanying the elderly to the bank for money withdrawals. These are measures of political propaganda that only instill racism to inhabitants without solving the problem, which is the provocative “open borders” policy, and which causes split among the people as well as between the long staying and the newly arrived immigrants. The anti-migrant racism is also being fomented by the “free breach of minimum wage standards” policy in each sector.

READ MORE AT

http://www.antinazi.gr/english/frameup.htm

BLAME IT ON (ALEXIS) TSIPRAS....

"Greek voter you have been found guilty for serial elections. Name your co-conspirators and you'll be granted clemency (from the corrupt establishment)".
" (It was the)...Tsipras".


www.yannis-ioannou.com

JOHN WOO REMAKES ACTION DRAMA CLASSIC "THE KILLER" WITH ANOTHER DIRECTOR...

http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/bruno-wu-to-finance-john-woo-produced-remake-of-the-killer-cannes/

(Cannes) May 18, 2012 –– Bruno Wu’s Seven Stars Film Studios (SSFS) has agreed to finance John Woo and Terence Chang’s Lion Rock Productions ‘THE KILLER’, the English language retelling of John Woo’s iconic 1989 action film. John H. Lee (A MOMENT TO REMEMBER, 71: INTO THE FIRE) will direct the script by Josh Campbell (ONE SQUARE MILE). Sarah Yan Li, China’s most promising rising star, will co-star in the thriller. Additionally, Li is a top graduate from China Central Academy of Performing Arts, China’s top performing art academy, and was recently selected as the spokesperson of China’s leading automaker Brilliance Automobile. Li is repped by CAA.

Lion Rock’s John Woo and Terence Chang will produce alongside Lion Rock’s Lori Tilkin, who will executive produce. Bruno Wu’s Seven Stars will finance the film which begins filming Q4 2012 in Toronto. Seven Stars’ CEO Fred Milstein closed the deal prior to Cannes.

GREEK NEONAZI LEADER:"WHAT AUSCHWITZ? HAVE YOU BEEN THERE?" NO, BUT YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE BATTLES OF MARATHON AND THERMOPYLES EITHER!

New York, NY, May 15, 2012 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today reiterated its concerns about the emerging role of a neo-Nazi party in Greece, following remarks by a party leader who questioned whether the Holocaust actually happened and asked an interviewer: "What Auschwitz?  Were you there?"

In a televised interview on Sunday, Nikos Michaloliakos, the head of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, said there were no gas chambers or crematoria in Auschwitz and the number of six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust was "an overestimation which was made up."  Golden Dawn won 7 percent in the first round of elections earlier this month in Greece, with enough votes to earn seats in parliament.

 "With the announcement of the necessity for a new round of elections, the Greek people should be fully aware that a vote for Golden Dawn is a vote for Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor.  "The voters, who gave this extremist party 7 percent in the first round -- perhaps in part as a protest vote -- should examine their conscience and realize they voted for the party of 'What Auschwitz?'"

Mr. Foxman added, "We welcome the Greek government's immediate and unconditional condemnation of Michaloliakos' statements, and encourage all political, civil society, and religious leaders to add their voices."

The League had previously called on Greek President Karolos Papoulias not to appoint any Golden Dawn members to any government posts, regardless of any future coalition agreements.