The Watering Hole: Tuesday June 14th – Basta!

“Basta!” means “Enough!” in Italian. And basta the Italians said yesterday. In four referendi they dealt a huge blow to Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi. They said: “Enough!” To the privatization of their water supply. “Enough!” to the guaranteed profits of same privatization. “Enough!” to the plans to build new nuclear power plants. And, finally: “Enough!” to the tailor made legislation, that was meant to let Berlusconi off the hook in his legal troubles. They even managed to get over the quorum of minimum 50% of voters (57%) even though the government had picked a bank holiday weekend for the vote and tried to discourage the people from voting. You can find two excellent background articles on Berlusconi’s Italy here and here.

Basta Cavaliere! Vattene!

The Italians could do it. The Spanish can do it, the Greek can do it, the Syrians do it at a cruel price, the Libyans do it, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan so many people are now standing up for their rights against their corrupt elites. When will we?

This is our Open Thread. Speak Up!