The troika report leaked by Reuteurs makes a valid judgement over the Greek government. That it is inept, doing the bare minimum and, in a word, useless. However, this does raise a pertinent question. Why are they then so gung ho on keeping Samaras in power? Why did they so unacceptably intervene in the Greek elections in Samaras’ favour last year? And finally, why did they not cut off further financing?

Which brings us to the second set of caveats. They may have continued financing, trimming the sum and making it conditional on carrying out further deflationary measures. They also singled out the government’s failure to collect taxes. Which, they maintain should be raised.

The measures demanded are designed to plunge the Greek economy further down the plughole. More austerity will lead to greater recession and… well yes, less tax revenue! Of course! How can these luminaries, mandarins, morons, what have you keep insisting on extracting more and more revenue from an economy in free fall?

As to tax evasion, that is another matter. Something that could and should be dealt with in itself and not by punishing the whole population and the whole economy and above all punishing the honest citizens of this country.

And with all this troika talk of shortfalls in financing which has to be covered by greater and greater taxation from an economy already sucked dry, ignores a simple fact. And that is that the only way Greece has a hope in hell of getting back onto its feet again is that all emphasis should be placed on stimulating production, helping the economy to start working again.

And the last thing one needs is more debilitating taxation.

This song was sung by Sophia Vembo (the great singer of the war, like Vera Lynn), in 1946 when after being hailed for her resistance, in the classic Churchillian phrase of it is not Greeks who fight like heroes, but heroes like Greeks, Greece now found herself spurned and vilified and plunged into a destructive Civil war, by her very war time allies.

This particular performance is from the Greek state TV NET station before it was summarily shut down in rather a fascist way. Today it was performed and broadcast from the ‘pirate’ banned NET station, still struggling to resist.

Having failed miserably as a “technocrat economist” so beloved of the Brussels/Berlin axis, Mr Yannis Stournaras has decided to add insult to injury and to turn into an equally bad politician. To this end he has taken to spouting nonsense declarations like: if we left the Eurozone we would turn into Syria!

Last night he had another shot at it. At about two o’clock in the morning after marathon… talks is it? Cringing is it? Fudge is it? Or just plain deceitful play acting over haggling with the troika representatives, Mr Stournaras struck again.

The events in Egypt, he said show what Greece would have been reduced to if she left the Eurozone as some have proposed (the ‘some’ sneered at pejoratively). This prompted various news commentators to say, it’s about time he started thinking before he spoke, other kinder ones to say things like, well he was tired, he was trying to steer the subject away from the godawful mess he has mad of the Greek economy.

One conclusion was that he rather likes being the big man in the government (which only goes to show how little they all are) and to turn himself into a politician now. Perhaps disingenuously thinking that he will actually gain votes from all those he has ruined. Who knows? Hardly the mark of a politician of any kind.

However, the punch line is, that things have calmed down in Egypt, her borrowing costs have gone down while Greece has yet again failed at carrying out any of the things these people agreed she would, is going straight down the tubes and the only reason German politicians are mouthing support and platitudes about a glimmer of hope in Greece and other such deceits, is because the only thing they are worried about is their own reelection.

I dare say after the German elections are over and the truth comes out, as it will,  Mr Stournaras may well start hoping desperately that things do turn out as in Egypt where Morsi was placed under arrest in the Ministry of Defence, rather than, say, thrown to the maddened crowd or something.

Just a thought the arrogant, overbearing, conceited, totally failed Minister of Finances might like to bear in mind.

Reauters reports this morning that a stern ultimatum has been given to Greece. You only have three days to get your act together. And do everything you agreed to (quite regardless that it was under duress and will only lead to the complete collapse of what is left of the economy), or else! No more money! That Mantra again. Okay.

But then the Commission jumps to the clicking of the Mistress’s fingers, or jackboots, or both. No! Goodness no! We deny the Reuteurs report! We have given no such deadline. We’re working together, sort of hinted that things will work out. Not to worry about Greece. Probably we’ll slice up this 8 billion or so tranche into several smaller slices and throw them at Greece, like you do at a dog, every time he gets the trick right.

So everything will be kept nice and quiet and out of the headlines till The Frau gets her elections safely behind her. Of course there is the IMF to think about. If everything is not ship shape by the end of July then it will pull out of the Greek programme. But if it does, this will make life extremely difficult for the northern states who will either be required to foot the bill themselves or pull out as well. And statements have already been made that they intend to do the latter.

Still, with Christine Lagarde, aka Marie Antoinette (also of Bernard Tapi fame) at the helm, she will no doubt manage to engineer her own fudge too and help out with The Frau’s ambitions. The way she did last time, plunging Greece into prolonged pain and misery.

Does any of this make any sense at all? Is any of it really worth it? For whom?

German Europe has turned into a looney bin where everyone is constrained in a tight strait jacket, pulled tighter every time the patient can’t jump through the hoop as The Frau desires. So either we break out of the straitjacket or we die a slow lingering death by suffocation.

In accordance with its statute and prevailing rules, the IMF cannot extend loans if the debt of the country under a programme is not sustainable. It is quite obvious to everyone, except Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schauble, that Greek debt is not sustainable, that the programme is failing miserably, that the ultra stringent austerity imposed on this hapless country has acted like the proverbial sledge hammer, in that even the healthy parts of what used to be the Greek economy, have collapsed. There is no longer any hope for recovery for Greece under this inhuman regime.

Yet again the IMF is fudging. It magnanimously granted Greece until July (this month that is) to deal with the short fall of what is it, 4 billion or so, before it is constrained to cut off this senseless financing of an unsustainable debt. There is no way this can be done. Greece has already been pushed way beyond her limits. Even if a fudge is laid out on excel sheets, based on continuing to raise taxes on non existent incomes, in a few months at best, the short fall will have grown even more rather than shrunk. For obvious reasons, that any first year economics student will know.

To show how obvious this should be: the shortfall that has been discovered all of a sudden derives from the health service. Expenses have shot way over the budget and must be brought in line. But how? The simple reason why this occurred is that before the crisis most Middle Class patients did not use the public health services very much in that they used private health insurance, or footed the bill out of pocket for medication and certain tests that were not too costly.

Now however, since this catastrophically destructive (as opposed to creative destruction) sledgehammer austerity has just about annihilated the middle classes in Greece, more and more people are having to resort to public healthcare, because they can no longer afford anything else as they used to. As a result, a far greater burden on public healthcare arises. But in this vicious circle of German inspired logic, what does the troika demand? More taxation, more cuts to income, in other words it wants to exacerbate the causes that led to the shortfall in the first place, rather than help mend them in any way.

If there were any integrity in the IMF they would declare right now, that Greek debt is not sustainable and that they are therefore obliged to pull out. Several northern Eurozone countries have said that if this happens, they will reconsider whether to continue the financing programme. Which is in fact the only sensible thing to do. The only thing to be done now is to negotiate a write down of Greek debt in conjunction with an orderly exit of Greece from the Euro.

But will the IMF do what it knows it must? No. The IMF has chosen to play Politics rather than Economics, as evidenced by the most recent sham in the case of Greek debt sustainability when Greece was once again coerced to buy back its already haircut bonds, and the result was most deceitfully declared a success, not least by Christine Lagarde, the Marie Antoinette of the current historical tragedy being played out. It wasn’t a success, however. Greek debt in absolute numbers is greater than what it was at the beginning of the crisis, let alone as a percentage of GDP.

So the reason why the Greek people have been condemned to a cruel, slow and lingering death is to accommodate the personal ambitions of one woman. Angela Merkel. Which is the reason why both she and Schauble have raised the telescope to their blind eye so they cannot see the unsustainability of Greek debt and the complete disaster of their programme. It would harm their own personal re election prospects.

For some reason no one dares endanger Frau Merkel’s chances of getting re elected. To be fair, there is fear of what might happen to the Euro if Greece leaves the straight jacket of the single currency. So Greece and the Greek people are being sacrificed for the survival of the Euro. But instead of rewarding the hapless country for this sacrifice for the greater good of the rest of Europe (if that does happen), it is being punished with greater and growing cruelty.

Now, though the Greeks are done for, flat on their backs with no will to fight back, there are certain laws of history and nature that are only ignored at one’s peril. This is one such case, where this dastardly hubris at Greece’s expense will bring on a Nemesis commensurate in might with the viciousness of the hubris.

I have been at a loss for words over the past week. What can you say? The violent closure of ERT, the public broadcaster in Greece has struck us dumb in more ways than one. The crass stupidity of it being perhaps what strikes one most, initially. The lack of ay planning. The failure to take any repercussions into account. And perhaps worse, or what adds insult to  injury, the vilification of all ERT employees. Branding them without exception as being lazy, corrupt, inefficient. In short, using the original German inspired propaganda against Greece, against the hapless employees.

I won’t go into the idiocy of cutting off the Greek diaspora throughout the world from the motherland. Nor how the Greek Aegean islands now watch Turkish TV without subtitles, and Salonika has been invaded by FYROM TV and things like that.

These lazy, corrupt, useless employees, however, have proved they are nothing of the kind. They have kept up a ‘pirate’ programme being supported and streamed by the EBU. And persecuted with a vengeance by the the Samaras regime. The quality is superb. The level of intelligence in debates is higher than anything ever seen on Greek TV before. In a way the Samaras regime has shot itself through the foot with this senseless act of dumb barbarism.

But what struck me most, was an image. The closures summarily fires all the employees. ERT’s excellent orchestras and choir, set up by Manos Hadjidakis no less, are to be disbanded never to reappear. So no more classical music on Greek airwaves from anywhere any more. This is really the kind of reform we need so dearly. Brutalise the population  completely.

And the image. A concert by the ERT orchestra broadcast by this “pirate’ station. They were performing a requiem, quite fitting. A violinist, a woman in early middle age, had tears of silent pain streaming from her eyes as she played her violin, contributing to the beauty of the music they now want to silence.

It would come as no surprise to anyone were it to  be disclosed that Antonis Samaras is a pathological narcissist. Which is one reason why a recent cartoon by the brilliant cartoonist Yannis Ioannou depicts him smashing one TV set after another, because none of them reflects back that he is the fairest, brightest, most successful of them all.

However, in his recent fit of absurd pique, he has taken the mirror metaphor further. He smashed the TV because it didn’t show him what he wanted in a childish tantrum. Yet, as I heard on free radio today, what he managed to do was what he least wanted to do.

The people of Greece have been lulled or drugged or terrorized into a state of lethargy through the shock doctrine that has hit them hard. This has turned them into docile couch potatoes staring at their TV sets. But when he shut down state TV they, we, all suddenly saw a black screen staring back at us, reflecting what our life has really become and what we can look forward to. A black nothingness.

This, the radio commentator said made us all jump up off the couch in shock and dash onto the streets and to the TV building in support. All of a sudden we saw what they have reduced us to and we did not like it. We did not like it at all. It fired us into realisation of the truth, it fired us into action.

Regardless of how this will play out or where it will lead, I would suggest that Mr Samaras has achieved the unachievable.

Under state control the TV stations were regurgitating his idiotic propaganda about how well he has done, how he has changed the climate, how Greece has turned the corner, and how he has achieved the Greek Success Story. The private TV stations were even worse in plugging this idiotic tale nobody could believe in, because they are dependednt on the state for favours and tax free profits.

So in imposing a black out, he blacked out his own propaganda tool, with the aim of replacing it with a better propaganda tool, but in the meantime, his mesmerised, stultified people, woke up, jumped out of their stupor, saw him for what he really is and ruined his whole image!

Bravo Antonis! Bravo. That really needs brilliance to achieve. Perhaps your mirror will reflect this when next you dare look into it.

The ham fisted idiotic decision to close down and abolish the Greek State TV and radio in one clean stroke, seems to have back fired. That does not mean Samaras will mend his ways in any way, nor relinquish the premiership if he can possibly help it.

But though Samaras has been Teacher’s pet doing everything and anything to please Schauble and The Frau, his very success in this (well he has boasted of his Success Story) may turn out to be his very undoing. Though the policy he insisted on following, that is to do everything the troika dictated  was patently wrong (and wrong in free market economic terms, hang the humanitarian aspect) he persisted in doing it quite regardless of the fact that it is leading to the complete collapse of the Greek economy and exit from the Euro.

With the invaluable help of Yannis Stournaras (who has taken on the mantle of Minister of public order now as well, threatening everyone daring to relay the ERT “criminal” broadcasts) he has pushed the people beyond endurance, and over board through his show of strength in shutting down the State Broadcaster.

This show of strength was a petulant move after the privatisation of the Gas company went terribly wrong, after recession has proved far deeper than estimated (something which was obvious to anyone with a modicum of common sense). He simply had to show to his cringing people that he was a Man. So he decided to smash things in the face.

Well… But be that as it may, and where this will lead in the end is something we will find out sooner or later for better or worse. But even in a worse case scenario, he has administered a fatal blow to himself. A blow from which he will not recover. Whether he dies a slow lingering death or a sudden flash one and how exactly this will play out for the country remains to be seen.

But one things is certain, if Merkel’s Poster Boy does not actually turn out to be her ruin, he will most certainly have gone a long way to contributing it.

Well now, how is that going? It is true, apparently, that there is a likelihood of achieving a primary surplus by the end of the year. However, this will be at the cost of the economy as a whole and will no doubt exacerbate the recession since it can only be achieved through taxation that has reached confiscatory proportions and cannot be sustained, unless the majority of the population is put behind bars for inability to pay. But then that will only increase expenses, won’t it?

So apart from that rather dubious achievement, what else constitutes the Samaras success story? Well now, lets see…. um…. ah… Unemployment isn’t increasing as fast as it was? Well it has already hit 27% and still is growing. The recession has been tamed? Not exactly that either. It has already overshot its target in the first four months. So what is left? Privatization!

That panacea the troika treat as gospel. Privatization! That’s the name of the game! Sell off the family silver! Well now, the great hoo ha made over the privatization of OPAP the state betting company rings rather hollow. Firstly, there was only one bidder, secondly the price was below expectations and thirdly, nothing has been paid yet. Hmmmm….

But that’s okay. DEPA, the gas company was to have been the great triumph AND brought in loadsa money! Unfortunately, however, again it was expected there would only be one bidder, Gazprom, only even they didn’t show up this time. Disaster!

But like everything else in this troika project to “save” (?) Greece, everything has been badly designed, badly thought out, based on false facts and considerations existing only in the realm of a limited imagination. First of all, all the proceeds from all privatizations are ear marked to go straight to paying back debt. Nothing will go to help the economy back on its feet again. Not only that, but the state has pledged to undertake losses too. Never mind that it will have collected nothing.

Secondly, when Gazprom showed its interest, the EU started muttering that it did not want Russia to have such a large share of the European market and would probably veto the deal if it went through. So hardly encouraging even the single solitary bid that might have been made.

And last but not least: what does it mean when there are No Bidders for anything put on sale? That prospective investors are brimming over with confidence in the Greek economy, as our cloud cuckoo land PM would have us believe? Does it mean everyone is convinced of his other little deceitful mantra, that the Grexit threat has been vanquished once and for all and Greece will not leave the Euro? No wonder he refuses to show up in Parliament and give answers to pertinet questions over all the nonsense he has been spewing out.

The more the Samaras government proceeds with this policy of do nothing other then what the troika demands, ratchet up austerity because that is what you are being told, do nothing at all in the way of trying to streamline public administration, rationalise tax and stimulate the economy, the less likely Greece has any chance of remaining in the Euro.

After today’s fiasco with the failed DEPA bid, I would suggest to the troika (who already know as much even if they won’t admit it) and Samaras (who hasn’t a clue) that perhaps not only Greece but the EU too would be better served if they stopped whipping this wretched dead horse and applied their energies instead to planning for an orderly exit of Greece from the Euro.

Otherwise it will happen in an extremely disorderly manner.

All of a sudden Europe has become churlish. What does the IMF know? It’s only a minor report drawn up by mere employees (what the Greeks tried to say about the troika in the first place.) It bears no relation to facts. It is a hindsight document (from Draghi that one), the rest from the Commission spokesman O’Connor – Not Donald unfortunately, at least he would have made us laugh. This one makes us cry.

Why all this petty refuting? Well, because the IMF finally came out with it. The Greek so called bail out plan has been a complete and utter failure and they got it wrong! Of all the cheek. The EU Commission never gets anything wrong. Ever. Just ask Olli Rehn, that greatest know all of all! He knows austerity is the right and only thing to do. And anyone who disagrees with him should just go hang.

After all look at Greece! The plan has worked beautifully! We have succeeded in totally destroying its economy and bringing down its welfare and healthcare and putting an end to all that soppy social policy that is so wasteful, haven’t we? And that is what we set out to do, so there! Besides, we have also solved Germany’s demographic problem. Germany has a lack of qualified personnel but Greeks and Spaniards etc will flock to the Mecca for work, solving that problem, oh and at a much lower wage than if they had been German.

So what is the IMF talking about? The Greek plan has been a resounding success! The way the EUSSR sees it.

Still, it is a sorry day when “Europe” makes the IMF look really good, now isn’t it?