Yves has an important guest-post over at Naked Capitalism. Since I can't find a way to pull bits and pieces and put them into blockquotes - because every single paragraph adds important detail and context - I'll do my best to sketch a thumbnail here, trusting that you'll click through to get the full monty over there...
So Greece has a new "Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks". Turns out, he's a true-blue, died-in-the-wool and in the purest sense of the term, fascist. His nickname is "The Hammer." How'd he get it? Why by beating on left-leaning activists with a hammer, of course. Yves has the pictures that prove it. And truth is, it's no secret. In fact, it's very well known (except to us, anyway). He's been active on the margins of Greek political life for decades. In sunnier times, no doubt, he was probably perceived as an oddity of sorts... a fringe character.
But, it turns out, when the 1% realize that democratic institutions (kabuki or otherwise) are no longer capable of sustaining and perpetuating their status and avarice, fascism is a handy backstop.
Of course, the media tells you none of this. Instead, we're told that the technocrats have been put in charge. That this time, Greece is led by people that really know what needs to be done and are competent enough to deliver.
Of course, they'll be delivering pain and suffering to their citizenry, while extracting every bloody dime they can from the country for the benefit of French, German, Dutch and ultimately, american bankers. You know... the folks that sip champagne on their balconies while mocking the 99% and showering McDonalds applications upon #OWS protesters.
The article goes on to note that even as Greece was said to be scraping together dregs in an effort to preserve their solvency, France was closing on a $400 million dollar warship deal that would allow Greece (an island nation) to either begin paying for the ships in 5 years, or return them to France. The United States found a way to deliver a large order of late-generation tanks.
This last bit is important because it offers a window on the future. As the article says, Greece was merely the first country to have bankers impose their will on its populace. But they won't be the last. If fascists are the banks' "chosen ones" for Greece, there's little reason to expect anything different anywhere else in the world.
Don't believe me?
Look again at the videos from Berkeley... from Liberty Plaza...