This is the first visit from Greece? Really?

I guess so. Monaco, Kosovo, Montenegro, San Marino, Vatican City, Lichtenstein -- they all refuse to come by. Greece? In the house! So what do we know about Greece? This:

officially the Hellenic Republic also known since ancient times as Hellas is a country located in southeastern Europe. According to the 2015 census, Greece's population is approximately 10.9 million. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki.
Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine geographic regions: Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands (including the Dodecanese and Cyclades), Thrace, Crete, and the Ionian Islands. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km (8,498 mi) in length, featuring a vast number of islands, of which 227 are inhabited. Eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres (9,573 ft).

When I was a lad, we learned a lot about Greece as the cradle of Western civilization. I think that school of thought is out of favor these days. Fuck that. Greece has a lot of islands that are really nice, I hear. They also are a constant threat to bring about the collapse of the European Union, which I view as a good thing. Tax evasion is the national pastime, followed closely, apparently, by not paying vendors who sell Greek businesses the goods that those businesses sell. I'm sure it's all hype.

Except for the islands thing. Such as this:

And this:

And this:

Come on. What's not to love? We also owe Greece -- or at least Sparta -- for giving us the battle of Thermopylae,  which gave us "300:"

So there you have it. Cradle of Western civilization, great beaches, hot chicks, fabulous war movies. Welcome to Eff You, Greece. Come again soon, and bring your friends.

Countdown to the drachma, y'all

Having voted against accepting the EU's offer of a bailout in exchange for fiscal reforms, Greece has pretty much opted out of the Euro. The referendum Sunday made it clear that the country is unwilling to change the fiscal ways the got it into the mess it is in today, and so only an idiot would loan Greece even more money. Frankly, I thought only an idiot would loan Greece money in the years leading up to this, but we have finally reached the point, I think, where even the idiots of the European Union realize that there is no point in loaning Greece even more money.

Or have they?

Belgian Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt was somewhat softer in his reaction, saying a "no" result "complicates matters," but that the door was open to resume talks immediately.
"What we certainly don't want to do is to take decisions that will threaten the monetary union," he told Belgium's VRT. "Within that framework we can start talks again with the Greek government, literally, within hours."

Some folks in the EU value talks over results. Actually, most folks these days seem to value talks over results, else we would not be "negotiating" with Iran over how much we should give them in addition to letting them develop nuclear weapons so they can fulfill their promises of destroying Israel. But I digress.

Germany is the country funding these bailouts of Greece, for the most part, and I think they're tired of it. I think we can look forward to no more EU money for Greece, which will practically require Greece to leave the Euro and return to the drachma, possibly as early as this coming week. The question the becomes, does the euro survive? I think Germany has a strong incentive under these circumstances to return to the deutsche mark. I guess we'll see if countdown to the drachma also means countdown to the mark. I think both countdowns have started.