People walk past a banner with an image of Tsipras at the party's pre-election kiosk in Athens

A sign for for anti-bailout party Syrzia in Athens, Greece yesterday

Ahead of elections in Greece this Sunday.

(which may see the country exiting the Euro).

Greg Palast writes:

The euro is simply the deutschmark with little stars on it. Greece cannot adopt Germany’s currency without adopting Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, as its own.

And Schäuble has determined that Greece must be punished. As my homey Paul Krugman points out, there is no credible economic theory that says that austerity—that is, cutting government spending, cutting wages, cutting consumer demand—can in any way help a nation in recession, in deflation. That’s why, in 2009, Obama ordered up stimulus, not a sleeping pill.

But austerity has nothing to do with economics. It is religion: the belief by the stern Lutheran Germans that Greeks have had too much fun, spent too much money, and spent too much lazy time in the sun—and now Greeks must pay a price for their sins.

Oddly, I hear this self-flagellating nonsense from Greeks themselves: we are lazy. We deserve our punishment. Nonsense. The average Greek works more hours in a year than any other worker in the 34 nations of the OECD; Germans the least.

Trojan Hearse: Greek Elections and the Euro Leper Colony (Greg Palast, Dissident Voice)

Greece Election 2015: the politics and economics in numbers (Guardian)

(Reuters)

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Free this Sunday?

Catherine Bray writes:

A film I’ve produced is screening at 4pm with live director Q&A at the Light House cinema, Smithfield, Dublin 7… It’s called Beyond Clueless and in the words of i-D Magazine, is “the ultimate movie about teen movies”. .

It’s all about modern teen movies of the ’90s and 00’s, including Mean Girls (2004), She’s All That (1999) and The Girl Next Door (2004).

‘New York Magazine’ said “it deconstructs cliques, party scenes, and devirginations, while also serving as an irresistible guide to the best (and worst-best) teen movies ever.”

The film had its Irish premiere at the Kerry Film Festival with a live score in October, but this is its first Dublin outing. Details below. Thank you.

Beyond Clueless

Tickets here 

Capture

She needs it for her ecker.

Ann Gleeson writes:

I am in my final year of a psychology degree. For my thesis I have chosen to cover the topic of online bullying. I have put together a survey as part of the thesis and I would really appreciate it if your lovely readers could spare a couple of minutes to fill it out. I promise it won’t take longer than that! Thank you in advance

Ask me arse

Survey here.

mark dennehy

Mark Dennehy

Further to anger at proposed restrictions for licensed firearm owners  –  farmers, hunters, paintballers, vets and sportspeople , all of whom are already vetted and signed off by the Gardai…

Sporting gunman Mark Dennehy writes:

So, you might remember this? And this? And then the kick in the teeth that was this? Well, after that, I and over 200 other shooters and the sports governing bodies and other representative groups sent in submissions to the Committee about the proposals (this was apparently quite a bit more than was expected). I was one of those asked to come in and talk to the Joint Committee about my submission.

So today thirteen of us will be appearing in front of the Joint Committee [on justice defence and equality]. My submission is here in case you want to read it

It’s not quite an end to the story, but I don’t remember this many from the sporting side of things being able to speak to the powers that be in quite this way before. And it’s a side to firearms in Ireland that I don’t think many people in the general public *ever* get to see.

FIGHT!

Watch proceedings live here

Broadsheet.ie