We’re counting down to the meeting between Trump and the Golden Dawn.

The Guardian:

Donald Trump’s administration has put itself on a fresh collision course with the European Union after the president’s candidate to be ambassador in Brussels said Greece should leave the euro and predicted the single currency would not survive more than 18 months in its present form.

Days after being accused of “outrageous malevolence” towards the EU for publicly declaring that it “needs a little taming”, Ted Malloch courted fresh controversy by saying Greece should have left the eurozone four years ago when it would have been “easier and simpler”.

Malloch made his comments as financial markets began to take fright at the possibility of a fresh Greek debt crisis later this year. Shares fell and interest rates on Greek debt rose after it emerged that the EU was at loggerheads with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over whether to give the country more generous debt relief.

“Whether the eurozone survives I think is very much a question that is on the agenda,” he told Greek Skai TV’s late-night chat show Istories. “We have had the exit of the UK, there are elections in other European countries, so I think it is something that will be determined over the course of the next year, year and a half.

“Why is Greece again on the brink? It seems like a deja vu. Will it ever end? I think this time I would have to say that the odds are higher that Greece itself will break out of the euro,” Malloch said.

The stridently Brexit-supporting businessman, who has yet to be confirmed as the US president’s EU ambassador and is seen by Brussels as a provocative nominee for the post, said he wholeheartedly agreed with Trump’s tweet from 2012 saying Greece should return to the drachma, its former currency.

AYO

Greece should get out of the euro & go back to their own currency–they are just wasting time.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2012

And it gets way better – he isn’t just calling for exit from the single currency.

“If the [IMF] will not participate in a new bailout that does not include substantial debt relief, and that’s what they are saying, then that, more or less, ensures a collision course with eurozone creditors,” Malloch added, saying it was imperative that EU member states forgave a substantial part of Greece’s mountainous public debt.

“Now we all know that primarily [puts pressure on] Germany, which remains opposed to any such actions, so I think it suggests that Greece might have to sever ties and do Grexit and exit the euro,” he said.

Under bailout programmes financed mostly by Germany, Greece has been given about €336bn in rescue loans, money that Berlin and other lenders are determined to get back. The euro-denominated debt pile would be essentially erased if Greece reverted to the drachma.

He’s not even couching this in diplomatic language. He’s just like “well, yeah, no, I think they should just default on their debt and exit the EU lol.”

This really is all of our dreams coming true.

It’s all so perfect.

As Greece is in chaos, the monkey trial of the Golden Dawn rolls along with nothing much happening.

The defense requested that the entire trial be televised, and the court rejected it. Regrettably.

The defense is already calling for the whole stupid thing to be thrown out.

ekathimerini:

The lawyer representing Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos argued in court on Thursday that the charges against him are not valid and that he is the victim of political persecution.

Takis Michalolias claimed that the case against his client, who is accused of heading a criminal gang, should be dropped.

Judge Maria Lepeniotou rejected his appeal and also denied a request for the live broadcasting of the trial.

The judge said she would only allow photographers into the courtroom.

The trial was adjourned and is due to resume on July 14.

The whole purpose of the fake charges was to stop the Golden Dawn from making increases in the last election cycle, and now that this is over, they’re eventually just going to have to let them go.

If Greece exits the eurozone, it will be much easier for this all to just be dropped and forgotten about forever.

We’ve got less than 70 hours in the countdown to Grexit, by the way. No real updates on that just now, but economists are basically saying it is a done deal.

Though who the hell even knows who these “economists” are?

Anything could happen.