Greece Bailout Offer Falls Short of Demands

Some of the stories of people going hungry are heart-wrenching, no matter what you think of Greece’s clusterf-k socialist economy.

At the Wall Street Journal, «Fresh Greek Bailout Proposal Falls Short of Creditors' Demands«:

Eurozone officials dismissed a new Greek proposal for budget cuts and policy overhauls as insufficient and said that the currency bloc's finance chiefs wouldn't hold any more talks on a rescue for Athens until the country holds its referendum on creditors' conditions for aid on Sunday.

Officials in Brussels said the proposal, received Tuesday night by the representatives of Greece's official lenders, appeared to fall short of creditors' demands. Greece defaulted on a €1.55 billion ($ 1.72 billion) repayment to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also reacted coolly to Greece's new offer, emphasizing that Berlin would maintain its tough stance on bailout terms for Greece and was prepared for a battle. Ms. Merkel and other senior officials have said that Germany would discuss a new bailout request only after Greece's referendum on the creditors' conditions for aid had taken place, or if Greece called it off.

"A compromise at any cost would only be a result to get a result, only because one isn't able to live with a conflict because one is afraid to fight the battle," Ms. Merkel said.

The eurozone's finance chiefs also agreed in a Wednesday teleconference to hold off on further negotiations until after the snap Greek referendum, which is set to take place Sunday.

"Given the political situation, the rejection of the previous proposals, the referendum which will take place on Sunday and the 'no' advice of the Greek government, we see no ground for further talks at this point," said Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who presides over meetings of the currency bloc's finance ministers.

Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, though, said that the other finance chiefs had said that "Greece's proposal is in the right direction, but asked for more details on its fiscal effect."

In a televised address, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras remained defiant, vowing to push ahead with the referendum and calling Greeks who vote "yes" in Sunday's vote accomplices to those looking to continue the painful policies of austerity in the crisis-stricken country. The premier has argued that a "no" vote would give Greece leverage in talks with its creditors, while eurozone officials have countered that it would be tantamount to a vote to leave the euro.

"A 'no' vote is a decisive step for a better agreement, which we aim to sign straight after the referendum," Mr. Tsipras said. " 'No' does not mean a rupture with Europe."

Earlier in the day, Germany's finance chief, Wolfgang Schäuble said that this week's turmoil—including the closure of Greek banks, the expiration of the bailout program, and the decision to call a referendum—have changed the circumstances too much for bailout talks to simply be resumed from where they were when negotiations broke down on Friday.

Mr. Schäuble said that Greece's left-wing government had to provide more clarity on its demands before negotiations about further financial aid could resume. The letter sent Tuesday hadn't done that, he said.

"This is no basis for serious" negotiations, said Mr. Schäuble during a news conference on the government's 2016 budget. "First of all, Greece has to declare what it wants."

Markets were nevertheless cheered by the latest offer as a sign that a deal was still possible. The Stoxx Europe 600 opened higher and extended gains sharply. Bonds yields fell in Italy and Spain, highly indebted countries that in past years were seen as vulnerable to spillover from Greece…

Still more.

And stay with the video at the top. Holly Williams reports and it’s emotional.

American Power

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In Under 2 Minutes, Here’s What You Need to Know About Greece’s Financial Crisis

The world has its eyes on Greece right now, as the country's financial crisis has hit a peak after more than five years of instability.

Greece is on the brink of defaulting on a $ 1.8 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund, which was due at midnight on Wednesday. On Sunday, July 5, Greek voters will vote on a referendum to determine whether the country will continue with austerity measures or move to reissue its old currency. Should Greek voters vote in favor of the latter, it would effectively separate Greece from the eurozone.

Greece's banks closed Monday for six business days, and the country limited the amount of money citizens could withdraw from ATMs.

For t hose watching the events unfold in Greece, here's what you need to know, explained in under two minutes.
Source
90 Miles From Tyranny

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State Dept’s dump of emails Hillary’s emails re-confirms what we already knew: David Axelrod’s a liar

**Written by Doug Powers

A couple of weeks ago, former Obama adviser David Axelrod said he wasn’t aware at the time Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of state that she was using a private server and email address:

An email from the hand-picked selection Hillary Clinton decided to turn over that was released by the State Department says otherwise:

Here is @davidaxelrod emailing Clinton's private account pic.twitter.com/fGpphLBilg

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) July 1, 2015

The emails Hillary Clinton turned over to State (which were edited by Team Clinton and the rest were deleted) are sticks for fetching. In other words, Hillary’s “going long” in red herring futures and these emails, while occasionally interesting or provocative, are revealing nothing that hasn’t been scrutinized by somebody wearing a “Grillary Clinton” apron.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

MichelleMalkin.com

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The Top Three Contenders For The U.S. Military’s XM17 Modular Handgun System Contract

We’re just a week away from the fourth and final industry day where handgun manufacturers will  meet to discuss the U.S. Military’s requirements for the XM17 Modular Handgun System (MHS). The XM17 project winner will be a replacement for the venerable, but now worn-out M9s made by Beretta that have been the nation’s top military pistol for 30 years.

The meeting will take place on July 7-8 at New Jersey’s Picatinny Arsenal.

The winner of the MHS contract is expected to be awarded the contract for roughly 280,000 full-size handguns for the Army, more than 200,000 for the Navy, Air Force, and Marines, and perhaps as many as 10,000 compact variants for concealed carry by military and DoD civilain law enforcement and clandestine special operations use.

While numerous companies will be vying for the lucrative contract, it’s going to be very tough for companies to meet the demands of the contract, which are designed to obtain the best handgun possible based upon new advances in the field of combat human factors and anthropomorphic research.

Official requirements for the XM17 program include:

• non-caliber specific
• modular grips
• grip that accepts a wide-range of hand-sizes (5th to 95th percentile)
• ability to accept different fire-control devices/action types
• ability to accept various magazine sizes
• suppressor compatible
• ability to mount “target enablers” (lights, lasers, etc) on a picatinny rail
• match-grade accuracy (90% or better chance 4″ circle at 50 meters)
• low felt recoil impulse

You may be surprised at the top contenders… and at which popular companies don’t come close to making the cut.

STI-Detonics STX

An early Detonics Defense STX prototype.

Who?

Neither Detonics Defense nor STI are household names, nor are they even particularly well-known among other gun companies. Detonics Defense is primarily a research and development “skunkworks” focused creating designs and patents around combat human factors research, while STI is primarily known as the maker of high-end competition handguns and elite military and law enforcement units.  Together, they form a singular Davis in a roomful of handgun industry Goliaths.

The two companies formed a strategic partnership just two weeks ago to build a number of different modular handguns using patents held by Detonics, incorporating STI’s vaunted engineering and production prowess.  Looking roughly like a 1911, the STX uses a drop-in striker box system that can be easily swapped out with other trigger packs, is caliber agnostic, uses a truly modular frame and grip that enables either a long or a short grip to be installed, has felt recoil up to 40% less than comparable designs, and is perhaps the only contender that exceeds the MHS spec for fitting various hand sizes.

Interestingly enough, the STX is also the only metal-framed handgun thought to be in contention for the contract, which may be a dual blessing for the upstart team. The U.S. military has never fielded a polymer-frame firearm to the masses, and there have been persistent rumors that the military has found problems with polymer handgun frames holding up in certain operational environments.

While STI-Detonics may not have the production capability of the other contending companies, that could be rendered an irrelevant point if the MHS contract is awarded based on an intellectual property package (IPP) basis, and is produced in-house by the Army.

Sig Sauer P320 MHS

A MHS variant of the Sig Sauer P320 will feature a frame-mounted manual thumb safety and come in a neutral color.

In our estimation, the MHS variant of the Sig P320 is one of the top polymer-frame handguns  in the MHS competition, and along with the STI-Detonics STX and the Beretta APX, make up the only truly modular designs competing for the contract. The P320 MHS  is platform agnostic, and can swap out frames and top ends on the same serialized chassis system to meet the requirements for a full-size and compact pistol. The grip is also believed to meet the 5th-to-95th percentile handgun grip requirements. It remains to be seen if the P320 MHS’s relatively high bore axis and relatively conventional grip geometry will generate more felt recoil than some of the other contenders.

Beretta APX

The APX was designed for next-generation military service. Gear Scout has a walk-through of the advanced Beretta design.

Beretta’s M9 has been the workhorse pistol design for the U.S. military for the past 30 years, and the company would love for their APX to be the U.S. military’s pistol for the next 30 years. Prototypes of the APX are in the hands of professionals at this moment, but they were not ready for us to fire when we Beretta hosted it’s first ever Tactical Summit earlier this year. The grip angle and low bore axis suggest that it might be softer-shooting that the P320, but until we get our hands on an APX on the firing line, we’ll have no way to know for sure.

The Could Have Beens

Smith & Wesson/General Dynamics M&P

General Dynamics and Smith & Wesson have public announced plans to enter a design in the MHS competition, but unlike the designs from Beretta, Sig Sauer,  and STI-Detonics, the frame of the M&P isn’t modular. While end users can swap out the backstrap of the pistol to better fit certain hand sizes, the grip is an integral part of the frame. While well-established and a proven design, the M&P isn’t particular innovative. We’re suspecting that the MHS variant is substantially different that current production M&Ps. It if isn’t, the design doesn’t stand a chance.

Glock

While the Glock is used by military forces around the world, and variants are approved for use in some specialized roles in the U.S. military, the Austrian company simply doesn’t come close to meeting the specs of the of MHS program. The Glock 22 is a likely entrant, but is only there for show.

HK

HK’s VP series  is mentioned as a MHS contender, but like the Glock and  Smith & Wesson designs, isn’t modular, and doesn’t appear to be caliber-neutral.

Walther PPQ

The PPQ is a joy to shoot and one of my personal favorites among striker-fired pistols. Unfortunately, it suffers from all the same MHS specification deficiencies as the HK VP series.

Colt

We’re only mentioning the bankruptcy-saddled company to address gray-haired readers that still insist that military should roll back the clock and reintroduce the 1911.

Um, no. Every pistol on this last is more accurate, reliable, has a higher magazine capacity, and better recoil control that the service grade 1911.

The post The Top Three Contenders For The U.S. Military’s XM17 Modular Handgun System Contract appeared first on Bearing Arms.

Bearing Arms

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Fanning the flames of another black church arson hoax

Fanning the flames of another black church arson hoax
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2015

America is still reeling from the horrific Charleston, S.C., massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church that claimed the lives of nine innocent people.

The last thing the community and our country need are hysterical journalists compounding the pain with inflammatory reporting on an unsubstantiated “epidemic” of black church arsons.

On Monday, a Baltimore Sun lead editorial decried “a series of mysterious fires at African-American churches across the South” in the wake of the Charleston murders. The newspaper cited a “pattern” of attacks, including what it claimed was an “uptick in attacks on 37 black churches in the South” in the 1990s that “prompted President Bill Clinton to set up a church-arson investigative task force.”

The Sun neglected to mention that Clinton had falsely claimed at the time that he had “vivid and painful memories of black churches being burned in my own state when I was a child”— an assertion immediately debunked by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The Sun also neglected to mention that the manufactured media coverage that launched the 1990s black church arson juggernaut, fueled by former USA Today reporter Gary Fields’ 61 fear-mongering stories, fell apart under scrutiny. Fields’ own employer was forced to admit that “analysis of the 64 fires since 1995 shows only four can be conclusively shown to be racially motivated.”

Reminder: Several of the hyped hate crimes against black churches had been committed by black suspects; a significant number of the black churches were, in fact, white churches; and the complex motives behind the crimes included mental illness, vandalism and concealment of theft.

Once again, falsified history is repeating itself.

The NAACP, which capitalized on the Clinton-era race hustle, is now pushing the new arson epidemic narrative. The organization remains shamelessly undaunted after fueling the fake NAACP “bombing” in Colorado Springs earlier this year. The group’s CEO, Cornell Brooks, tweeted the incendiary “#WhoIsBurningBlackChurches” hashtag on Tuesday and disclosed that he is “informing churches, reviewing legislation, pushing media awareness and deciding legal options.”

The left-wing instigators at the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose stated mission is to “destroy” its political opponents and whose target map and list of social conservative groups were used by left-wing domestic terrorist Floyd Lee Corkins to shoot up the Washington, D.C., office of the Family Research Council in 2012, baselessly reported: “In what may not be a coincidence, a string of nighttime fires have damaged or destroyed at least six predominately black churches in four southern states in the past week.”

Teach for America alumnus agitator DeRay McKesson quickly added his Twitter kerosene to the fire, reflexively claiming that the “KKK” was responsible for a half-dozen black church burnings.

Buried beneath the sensationalized social media avalanche of panic: the more judicious and careful observations of Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce that the feds have made no official determinations that any hate crimes have taken place and that “it’s unclear whether any of the fires are linked.”

It was observed that “one of the half-dozen church crimes was most likely “accidental” and had “no element of criminal intent.”

Another “was likely touched off by an electrical short” after a tree limb fell on the property, yanking the electrical service line with it.

And yet another alleged “black church arson” actually involved a white church “struck by lightning.”

No matter.

NBC News trumpeted: “Spate of Fires at Black Churches Raise Concerns of Rise in Hate Crimes.”

The Washington Post ominously tallied “five predominantly black Southern churches burn within a week; arson suspected in at least three.”

The New York Daily News blared: “String of apparent arson fires plague black churches in Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee.”

Mic.com quoted a hate crimes “expert” blaming — you guessed it — “the growth of violent right-wing extremist ideology in the U.S.” for the nonexistent black church arson epidemic.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. In this case, it’s coming from the five-alarm self-immolation of agenda-driven journalism’s credibility.

MichelleMalkin.com

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Greatest Hits: Is it Time to go Galt ? Some Simple Ways to Avoid Feeding the Beast

Is it Time to go Galt? Some Simple Ways to Avoid Feeding the Beast-There are ways to get away from the grid, of not completely off it.  Why support the system that wants to persecute you?

Since our Republic is essentially on it's deathbed, and Obama's hand is poised on the plug for the final pull, many are contemplating their role in the new order.  Do we quietly  acquiesce, and accept our enslavement, or do we try to sabotage the nanny state by refusing be be sucked dry?  Well, there is a way to legally and ethically resist the beast-it's called "going Galt."   If you are unaware  "going Galt" is a reference to Ayn Rand's prophetic novel, Atlas Shrugged, in which the producers in a future America tire of being vilified and robbed by a nanny state.  Their response was to drop out and refuse to produce, leading to the collapse of the corrupt system.  Reaganite Republican has a good description of what it means to "go Galt."  

What exactly is 'Going Galt'?

Think of it as a supply-side Cloward-Piven strategy…
starve the beast, rather than milk-it-dry:

'Going Galt' doesn't simply mean getting angry. That would be "Going Postal." It means having righteous indignation at the injustice of a political system that bails out individuals and institutions for irresponsible behavior and at the expense of those like you who prosper through hard work and personal responsibly. 

'Going Galt' means asking in the face of new taxes and government controls, "Why work at all?" "For whom am I working?" "Am I a slave?" 

'Going Galt' means recognizing that you're being punished not for your vices but for your virtues. 

'Going Galt' means recognizing that you have a moral right to your own life, the pursuit of your own happiness, and thus to the rewards you've earned with your labor. 

'Going Galt' means recognizing that you deserve praise and honor for your achievements rather than damnation as "exploiters." 

'Going Galt' means recognizing that you do not need to justify your life or wealth to your neighbors, "society," or politicians, or bureaucrats. They're yours, period! 

'Going Galt' means recognizing that the needs of others do not give them a claim to your time, effort, and achievements. 

'Going Galt' means shrugging off unearned guilt, refusing to support your own destroyers, refusing to give them what Ayn Rand termed "the sanction of the victim." 

It means taking the moral high ground by explicitly rejecting as evil the premise of "self-sacrifice" that they sell to you as a virtue— in fact "self-sacrifice" is an invitation to suicide.

So, now that you know why, what about how?  Well, Reaganite Republican has some tips as to how…

1. Buy used or new via secondary markets. Use Craigslist to find new stuff at less than retail… and you pay no taxes into the system. 

2. Contribute to the secondary market by having a yard sale, you've probably got tons of junk you haven't even seen in years. 

3. Forget status symbols and keeping-up-with-the-Jones'. Maybe you can afford that nice new car, but you'll pay A TON of taxes on it. Find a lesser vehicle that makes you happy that feeds the beast less, perhaps one bartered from within the family. 

4. Invest and hold. Avoid taxable capital gains until Jan 2017. 

5. FIX YOUR STUFF instead of replacing it. So many people look at durable possessions as disposable. Take those pants to the tailor, or better yet, get a used sewing machine and fix them yourself. Find someone with a welding machine to fix that patio chair. 

6. Maintain your possessions properly. Clean the dust out of your computer. Keep on top of the car, house, and tools.

7. Plant a garden and grow as much of your own food as possible… and don't forget spices in your window box, fresh is best anyway.. 

8. Enjoy life more simply. Choose a day at the park over an afternoon at the movies.  Attend a church cookout instead of going to Outback.

9. Speaking of things like the movies – stop going (Ed- I did years ago). Wait for the DVD and rent it for $ 1 at Redbox. If there is a cheaper option to do something, take that option.

Or – here's a radical idea – buy used books dirt cheap and READ. 

10. Set up two days a week to run errands. Run them all at once and efficiently instead of wasting money (and taxes) on fuel. If your workplace offers a work-from-home option, TAKE IT. (The 'green' Left will love this one, but we're talking about opportunities to avoid paying taxes into the system, while saving yourself some coin in the process) .

11. Create gifts instead of buying them. 

12. Barter for goods and services under-the-table

13. Avoid all union shops, products, and services

14. If possible, move to a low-tax Red state

15. Lower the amount the feds withhold from your paycheck- just take the maximum allowable deductions. Yes, it may mean you have to 'pay' come tax time BUT if just 10% of the people who receive paychecks would do this it would put a severe crimp on the DC cash flow. Just stash the extra cash somewhere and come tax time if you need it to pay Uncle Obama well then you have it.

As you can see, it might be a sacrifice of sorts, but you won't be feeding the government that wishes to enslave you.  Of course, the choice to "go Galt" is yours to make, but anything you can do to not feed the beast, the better.

Conservative Hideout 2.0

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The Stogie–Donald Debates: Debunking Abraham Lincoln’s Fort Sumter ‘Plot’

Stogie attacked me at the comments of my earlier post, «Abraham Lincoln ‘Plotted’ to ‘Force the South’ to Fire the First Shot at Fort Sumter?«:

Donald, instead of insulting me, why don’t you actually read a book or two? Yes, Lincoln deliberately provoked the South into firing the first shot at Fort Sumter. He planned it, he plotted it. This is proved by historical research and reference to original documents, like . Read «Lincoln and Fort Sumter» by Charles Ramsdell, the Southern Historical Association, 1937. It is now in the public domain. Lincoln admitted his pleasure at the South firing the first shot, in a letter to a Captain Fox. He wrote:»You and I both anticipated that the cause of the country would be advanced by the attempt to provision Fort Sumter, even if it should fail; and it is no small consolation now to feel that our anticipation is justified by the result.» [starting the war]. The result was that thousands of angry Northerners joined the army, falsely believing that the South’s attack on the fort was unjustified.

And my response:

Who’s insulting whom, Stogie? Obviously I read books all the time. It’s simply that any countervailing evidence cannot penetrate the tinfoil redoubt you’ve built up to defend this so-called Southern heritage. Why is the Klan campaigning to keep the Confederate flag up in Columbia? Doesn’t that bother you to have the KKK for an ally?

Less belligerently, as readers of course know, I read books all the time. It’s pretty much what I do when I’m not blogging, besides eating, sleeping, watching news and sports, and hanging out with my family. I’ve got until the end of August to lollygag around until the fall semester starts.

So, I’m reading all kinds of things, like I always do.

Perhaps Stogie might check out Richard Nelson Current’s, Lincoln and the First Shot, a history of the roughly two-month period leading to the outbreak of hostilities at Fort Sumter. In his afterword, Current reviews the evidence that Lincoln «plotted» to force the South to fire the first shot, and he follows that discussion with more recent scholarship that debunks the memes of the Southern heritage partisans by citing the works of historians James Randall, David Potter, and Kenneth Stamp. I’ve photographed the key sections. As the summary of Professor Randall indicates, «Lincoln intended and expected a peaceful provisioning of the fort.»

You can read the full passage below. Clearly, partisans will adopt their favored views, but Stogie is delusional if he thinks that Lincoln «plotted» to force the South to strike first. Indeed, Stogie’s ravings are right in line with the feverish rants of Marxists and radical libertarians, positions that are way outside mainstream and authoritative interpretations of the origins of the Civil War.

And by the way, Stogie has yet to respond to the announcement that the Ku Klux Klan will march to support the Confederate flag in Columbia, South Carolina. Clearly, those KKK ghouls haven’t gotten the «innocent Sorth» memo.

American Power

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