By greydogg and snake arbusto, 99GetSmart

- Samaras says Greece won first round in bid to remain in euro: After Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras briefed Karolos Papoulias, the President of the Republic, on his recent meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande, he spoke briefly to the press:

"We are in a struggle to avoid the danger of our country's exit from the euro. We are in a struggle to bolster the country's negotiating position and get us closer to the goal that all three coalition party leaders have promised: Recovery. More jobs, especially for young people. And finally to have growth in this country. The drachma lobby has lost a decisive round. But we have much work ahead of us. We have our last but very tough decisions to make. Thank you very much."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxxrunE1dfc&feature=player_embedded

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- SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras made several comments regarding Samaras's press briefing:

"Greek society is facing the reality of a humanitarian catastrophe and the local government is responding by strangling the people with ever shrinking social services, wage cuts, pension cuts, job cuts, new emergency taxes and the privatization of public assets."

"How can the three ruling parties so easily promise the Troika, Merkel and other European leaders that they are going to realize the terms of the Memorandum? And how can they have promised that they will find new austerity measures totaling over 15 -- billion?"

"We are stating the obvious. We are sounding the alarm because the current government in Greece is going to disappear. If we don't change directions, then within a short time we will experience unbelievable social tension. Let's hope that through future battles, we will manage to claim the obvious."

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- Communist Party (KKE) leader Aleka Papariga also weighed in on Samaras's statements.

"The austerity measures must be confronted by the Greek people with a general strike and escalating battles with the government."

"Every sector of the Greek society is going to fight for issues that concern them. But at the same time they will participate and support the general movements. It's not possible to watch the new package of austerity measures that will be tragic, by just simply staying inside our homes and mourning. And confronting the situation with disappointment and absolute paralysis."

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- Max Keiser explains the manufactured global economic crisis:

"With the introduction of derivatives in the 70s and 80s what was made available to financial engineers was the ability to impose a financial irrigation system where this river of cash that was being generated by the economy is directed into one group of folks at the expense of everyone else. It's clear that the gorillas in the equation keep getting fatter and fatter and the vast majority of the people are starving to death. This isn't by accident. This is called financial engineering, derivatives enabled by using the new wave of computer-aided technologies to architect the global financial system. The people in Greece right now are facing utter collapse, but hey! the islands are for sale."

"Now is that a coincidence that all of their income-producing assets are for sale? The infrastructure, the lottery, toll booths shipping, and the islands are for sale that are worth three or four times the debt that is being said they must pay off. Of course if they had control of their own destiny, they could pay back the debt quickly and retain their sovereignty. But no, the Troika comes in and says "you no longer have your sovereignty, and by the way, we are going to sell your assets for many times more than the debt that we say you owe us.' That is nothing more than a grand heist perpetrated by the IMF on these people. And of course they have resisted. They have been in the street. They've protested; but they get no solidarity. People from all over the world should be in Athens right now protesting against this confiscation of wealth."

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- A trader in Greece gives Business Insider a grim assessment of the mood in the country right now:

"Right now, I am afraid there is very little visibility regarding the political developments in the next few months. You might as well toss a coin."

"At some point, however, I believe we shall reach some kind of "social tipping point' regarding the ability of the Greek households and society to absorb more austerity measures, the resulting continuing steep decline in economic activity, and ever-rising unemployment. The result may well be social rebellion, maybe even civic mutiny and the associated political and parliamentary instability. This is the game plan that the neo-communists of Syriza have been preparing for over the past year or so and the one that they have actually reinforced whenever and wherever that was possible. Unfortunately, I cannot see a "good ending' scenario, under the present circumstances. Now, when this tipping point may be reached is anybody's guess. It could very well be as close as only a few months away. I do not believe that you can find anybody, within or outside Greece, that still sincerely and truly believes that the Troika process of "internal devaluation' shall lead to a positive socioeconomic outcome, since no effective counter-balancing economic development measures and incentives were ever implemented, or even seriously considered."

"Sorry I could not offer a more optimistic or positive picture and I hope that developments soon prove me wrong."

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- Citizens in Crete are fighting back against the sell-off of Greek ports. A resolution published by the citizens and institutions against the sellout of the ports of Crete stated:

"We, the ordinary citizens, are representatives of social and political institutions and citizens' groups. We oppose the exploitations / concessions of the ports of Crete, as well as any other public property under the conditions described in the Memorandum. We consider the sale of public assets an act of treason and we will use all of our power to prevent it."

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- Dairy farmers / breeders of Epirus react to the sale of DODONI

On Tuesday morning, in a gathering held in the courtyard of the public dairy company, DODONI, dairy farmers and breeders expressed their strong opposition to the privatization of DODONI. Representatives of farmers from all prefectures of Epirus said that livestock throughout the country and especially in Epirus are in a very difficult position. As the cost of feed has multiplied, the state has not subsidized incremental measures to enhance primary production.

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StopCartel TV broadcasts live from Athens, Greece on weeknights at 6pm Athens time @ http://www.livestream.com/stopcarteltvgr

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